Storm's Hand (The Owl House AU)

"You are talented. You are a star. You may be hated, so long as you are feared."

That was Boscha's morning mantra, and she always said it without fail while preparing for school.

She looked into the mirror of her vanity table with her hair down. She put her hair into the usual bun and stood up, looking around her room and seeing every reason to feel proud of herself. On every wall of her bedroom were shelves filled with numerous medals and trophies from her victories.

Boscha then slipped on a varsity jacket before heading for the door. Before leaving the room, she stopped and looked at her calendar beside the doorway, smirking.

"Most important of all... you are a winner."

She ripped off a page of her calendar before walking out the door. The whole month had been marked 'Grudgby Season.'

It was her time to shine once again. And this time, she would show no mercy to her opponents.

Boscha walked through the streets of Bonesborough, dribbling a Grudgby ball with her eyes closed and smirking. She passed by several mesmerized onlookers, admiring her as she walked past them.

"There she goes. Captain of the Banshees," said a lady, "Off to win another championship for Hexside."

The old demon woman next to her turned to her grandchild.

"Why can't you be more like her?"

Her grandchild breathed in deeply with an expression that simply said, 'I am going to murder you one day.'

Soon, the famous Captain of the Banshees approached Hexside. The school was decorated with blue and yellow flags and streamers. As Boscha approached, a giant banner magically unfurled over the school, saying "GO GET 'EM, BANSHEES!"

Boscha stopped just a few feet from the double doors to see her teammates, Skara, Amelia, and Cat. They were waiting for her. Boscha spun the ball on her finger and threw it away over her shoulder. After that, she snapped her fingers, and her teammates gathered behind her.

"Alright, girls. You know the drill. Captain goes first," she said, approaching the doors. Grabbing both handles, Boscha threw open the doors and entered the school to announce her presence. "Hello, Hexside! Your star has arrived! The groveling line starts here."

She closed her eyes and pointed to the floor before her feet. However, when she opened her eyes, Boscha was confused.

"Something's not right... Nobody's here!"

She looked around and saw that Hexside's halls were empty save a few balloons and some streamers. She was about to yell again until she caught sight of someone sitting on a bench near the doors. It took Boscha a second glance to see that the halls weren't completely empty.

Sturm was sitting on a bench, reading a book titled 'Illusion Magic 101.'

Boscha's heart would normally skip a beat whenever she saw her crush, but at that moment, she was too angry to care. Thinking that he could somehow explain what was happening, Boscha marched over to Sturm and stopped before him.

"Sturm!" she barked, pushing the book down to make him look up at her.

"I was reading that," Sturm complained.

"I demand to know why no one's here to see the Grudgby team," she said, crossing her arms.

"Probably because they're too busy admiring someone else," he explained deliberately. To say that Boscha was jealous would be an understatement.

"Someone else?!" she exploded, making her teammates flinch, but Sturm was still like a statue. He didn't even blink. "Who dares steal the spotlight from me?!"

"Don't know. Don't care," Sturm said, lifting his book and lowering his gaze back at the pages, not giving the whole thing much thought.

Boscha was about to yell again until she heard the sounds of laughing students from a distance. She walked away, and her friends followed her, leaving Sturm to read alone in relative silence until the classes started.

The first class of the day was history. Sturm sat in the front row next to the window between the one-eyed student Eileen and the literally pig-faced student whose name the red-eyed teen never bothered to remember. Luz, Gus, and Willow were sitting behind him.

He sat in the classroom as the teacher lectured about the Emperor himself.

"Over 50 years ago, Emperor Belos appointed a head witch to each coven," he said while some students looked bored.

However, Sturm was one of the few who bothered to listen. He had to keep his title of top student by excelling in all subjects. History was one of the subjects Sturm picked up with ease. And lately, he'd been restlessly studying the history of the Emperor's rule and the castle from which he governed the Boiling Isles with an iron fist.

While Sturm tended to excel at history, telling the difference between factual history and propaganda gave him a headache because there was so much of the latter.

"Now, who can tell me a brief summary of the history of the construction of the Emperor's castle?"

Sturm raised his hand before anyone else could. The teacher sighed.

"Yes, Sturm."

The white-haired teen stood up and cleared his throat before answering.

"With the effort of the newly formed Construction Coven, the castle was built within less than a month after the Emperor took complete control of the isles. The castle was built around the Titan's heart. Therefore, the place was considered sacred. The Emperor ordered the builders to not use any of the bones as materials, and the few who disobeyed were executed."

"That was well done. I expected nothing less from the top student."

Sturm gave a slight smirk and sat down, feeling a glimmer of pride for being complimented by the teacher. After sitting down, the teacher continued with his lecture. He continued talking more about the castle's architectural history and the newly formed council until he was ready to throw another question.

"The council headquarters was built and paid for by...?"

Sturm raised his hand again. And this time, no one else bothered to try and answer. The teacher decided not to pick Sturm this time, much to the latter's displeasure.

"Anyone? Willow?"

Being only half sure of the answer, Willow stood up and spoke.

"Uh, the Pixie Dust Taxes?"

"Whoo, yeah! Go, Willow!" cheered a student from the hall outside.

The teacher quickly drew a spell circle and slammed the door shut. He turned back to Willow and smiled.

"Impressive, Miss Park."

The students all started murmuring in admiration, making the plant girl blush as she sat down. Sturm sighed, slightly disappointed that he didn't get picked. But he let it slide.

He tried to keep listening, only to involuntarily overhear the conversations behind him.

"What's going on? It's like all of Hexside's caught Willow fever!" Luz said.

"Ever since I patched things up with Amity, I've been feeling more confident. I guess it shows," Willow smiled, gesturing to a flower-shaped hair clip she was wearing.

However, the hair clip started glowing green before being levitated off Willow's head and flew behind the group of friends, right into Boscha's hand. Sturm heard the commotion behind him and looked back from the corner of his eyes.

"Aw, Willow thinks she's popular now. How cute," Boscha said mockingly as her other team members sat with her. While Willow looked down, Luz glared at the bullies.

"Hey, I agree. My friend is very cute. But give that back!"

Luz stood up and tried grabbing for the hair clip. However, Boscha pulled her hand back.

"It's weird that Amity hangs out with you now. Ever since Grom, she's gone soft."

Sturm had to agree. Amity was hardly the same after the fiasco at Grom. The young Blight used to try and get on his nerves and brag about the privileges he didn't have. But lately? She was hardly paying any attention to him. Sturm couldn't complain, though. He appreciated the quiet, but something still didn't feel right.

Boscha continued talking as she put Willow's clip in her hair.

"But don't worry, I'm still here to show you who's boss."

Gus suddenly appeared next to Boscha and grabbed the clip from her hair, taking the three-eyed bully by surprise. He walked over to Willow and put the clip back in her hair.

"Here, Willow," he said kindly, making Willow smile and blush.

However, Boscha glared at the kids standing up to her. She would have none of it.

"Oh-ho-ho! The friends wanna get in on this too, huh?"

Boscha then drew a spell circle and made Willow's bag levitate into the air above the heads of Gus, Luz, and Willow. She tilted the bag, spilling its contents onto the trio.

When Luz and her friends yelped in surprise upon getting hit by the falling objects, Boscha and her team began to laugh.

Such a sight would make anyone feel bad for the ones getting bullied. But Sturm didn't feel the slightest bit of pity for them, especially Luz. She always got in the way of his plans to make Amity miserable. Admittedly, he felt a slight satisfaction seeing her get her comeuppance.

The commotion got the attention of the teacher.

"Is that laughter? Hey, hey! Learning's not supposed to be fun!"

"We are having zero fun, I swear. Boscha's picking on us!" Luz said, pointing at the bully behind her.

"My apologies, sir. I was practicing my aim for Grudgby," she said smugly as she threw an eraser at Willow's head.

"Boscha! How could you throw things at them..." the teacher said, seemingly angry and disappointed, before grabbing the chalk and smiling as he drew a circle on his chest. "...when you could throw things at me! Am I over here? Or am I over here? Anything for the Captain of the Banshees!"

"Oh, thanks, but I already have the perfect targets," Boscha said as she threw gum into Willow's hair.

Sturm sighed and placed his hand over his face in embarrassment. What he saw was completely stupid, so he tuned everything out as he continued reading.

As the day progressed, a lot has happened. Boscha and her friends had followed Luz, Willow and Gus all day. They drew on their faces, threw things at them, constantly insulted them, and made fun of whatever quirks they had.

Eventually, Luz had had enough, and because she was incapable of helping herself, she took inspiration from the Good Witch Azura and challenged Boscha to a Grudgby match.

Willow and Gus had never played that sport beforehand, so Luz decided to train them with a delightful thing called a 'montage.' After putting her friends in danger with a move she saw in Azura 2, Willow and Gus decided to quit.

When Luz decided to forfeit the game and take her friends' places, Willow had a change of heart and returned to protect the human girl and tell Boscha that the game was back on.

And surprisingly, Amity decided to join in for reasons Boscha did not even try to understand. When the young Blight appeared, Boscha scoffed.

"You just destroyed your social life," she said as Amity walked over to Luz and WIllow.

"Nah. I think I made it better," Amity smirked.

"Ugh! We start in fifteen minutes! Get dressed!" she yelled, stalking off back to her team.

When her opponents left to change, Boscha was fuming.

"What do we do now?!" she yelled, expecting her teammates to find a solution.

"Well, Amity used to be our team's captain. This makes her a problem. We need to find another way," Skara explained. Boscha thought for a moment.

"Hmm. Wait! I know just the right person!"

The Banshees didn't have to search long. In only five minutes, they found the right person with the skills necessary to give Amity a headache during the match: Sturm.

"So you're bothering me to help you humiliate a bunch of kids in a sport I was never interested in?" he asked, almost incredulously. He was sitting on a bench out of sight, somewhere near the Grudgby field. He was still reading that Illusion Magic 101 book.

"If that's how you wanna put it," Boscha replied. "You're the quickest person I've ever met. And you're powerful and direct. It's a shame you're not a Grudgby player. With your help, we will utterly destroy the rival team!"

Sturm scoffed and broke his gaze to look back at the book.

"I don't see how that benefits me. What do I get out of it?"

Boscha smirked.

"Amity is on that rival team."

Sturm instantly put the book down and looked up at Boscha, finally showing interest.

"I'm listening," he said after a short pause. Boscha gave a satisfied chuckle after hearing that answer.

"I know how much you hate Amity's guts. This is your chance to humiliate her, and we get to use Willow and her round-eared friend as target practice. We all win."

Sturm smiled, too. He took a deep breath, closed the book, set it down, and stood up. Sturm's height made Boscha back up a bit since he was a few inches taller than her.

"I'll join you. But on one condition."

"Name it."

"If I agree to play with you, you will owe me a favor, regardless if we win or lose. Deal?"

"Deal!"

Once the fifteen minutes were up, the Banshees returned to the Grudgby field, where Luz, Amity, and Willow were waiting for them, dressed in spare uniforms. Gus was sitting on the bleachers with a flag connected to an IV. No one was in the mood to question that.

Boscha dribbled a ball as she approached the rival team.

"I see you three are finally ready," she said.

"You bet we are," Luz smirked confidently. "We are more than ready to take you down!"

"Whatever you say, round ears," Boscha chuckled. "Oh. I forgot to mention. Sturm will be joining us."

Before Luz, Amity, and Willow could react, Boscha tossed the ball over their heads. When the three girls looked back, they almost jumped when they saw the ball getting caught by someone with one hand.

Sturm lowered the ball to reveal his face and uniform. He had the same face paint under the eyes and wore the same outfit as the other Banshees, but the gloves, knee pads, and the short-sleeved shirt underneath the breastplate were all black.

The girls felt their hearts sink as they stared at the red-eyed teen, who gave them an unpleasant smirk. They knew what he was capable of. And they knew that they barely stood a chance with him as their foe.

"Hi, there," he started. "What made you come back on the field? Maybe you didn't hurt your teammates badly enough last time? Hm?"

Amity froze when she heard that. She neglected to tell Luz about one detail of what happened the last time she played Grudgby.

Sturm was there when it happened. And he didn't miss the opportunity to rub the incident in Amity's face. For weeks, Sturm continuously used that moment as an example of why she was undeserving of being on top. Thankfully, he stopped doing that after a while, but the wound never truly healed. And having him say that again after all this time reopened the wound in full force.

As Luz looked at Amity in concern, the young Blight closed her eyes, took a deep breath and glared at Sturm. She was tired of letting him criticize her.

"You wanna play, Sturm? Then shut up, and let's play!"

Sturm responded with an amused chuckle as he raised the ball a bit.

"Game on."

Finally, Luz, Willow, and Amity faced Boscha, Sturm, and Amelia at the center of the field, waiting for the ball to appear.

"Go, Willow!" Gus cheered, waving his flags that recovered from the impromptu hospitalization.

Willow smirked at Boscha and whispered, "There's something on your shoe."

"Like I'd fall for that," Boscha scoffed, rolling her eyes.

The ball was launched into the air from a hole in the center of the field. Boscha immediately lunged for it but was stopped when her right foot got stuck. Willow had used her magic to make small vines protrude from the ground and wrap around her shoe, making Boscha fall over.

Willow caught the ball and used her magic to sprout giant vines from the ground. Said vines wrapped around Willow like a cocoon before pulling her into the earth.

Before the others could rush to get the ball, Sturm had his own plan. He clenched his fist, thrust it forward, and cast a lightning bolt powerful enough to destroy the top of the plant cocoon. However, that didn't stop Willow.

Coming out of the ground before the goalpost, Willow threw the ball and made the first goal. She sighed with relief before looking at Sturm.

"Were you trying to take my head off, or what?" she asked, almost angry. Sturm just shrugged.

"Guess I don't know my own strength," he replied as Luz approached him.

"Well, can you play without trying to kill anyone?"

Sturm groaned a bit.

"Alright. I'll try. But I make no promises."

The game progressed. In a way, Boscha was right. Sturm was fast, strong, and pulled no punches. His hatred for Amity motivated those attributes.

However, that was his biggest flaw.

Sturm cared more about tormenting Amity than actually winning the game. This was a flaw that was effortlessly taken advantage of. With the Banshees' strongest player distracted, the rival team held their own against Boscha.

For example, as Luz and Amity rushed toward the Banshee's goalpost, the former, who held the ball, stepped on one of the traps, and a giant swinging ax came out of the ground before her, blocking their path.

Amity used a giant abomination arm to hold back the ax for Luz, who ran off to score another goal. However, Sturm drew a spell circle and seized control of Amity's abomination hand. He turned the giant hand against her. He ripped off the ax and threw it away before trying to smash Amity with the hand.

Luckily, Amity managed to evade his attack. When Boscha saw this, she was furious.

"HEY! FOCUS ON THE BALL, NOT AMITY!"

Another example was that during a round, while Amity rushed across the field while holding the ball, Sturm zoomed next to her and yanked the ball from her hands.

Then Sturm stood there, all smug, while holding the ball out toward Amity. And because he felt generous, he covered his eyes. Amity knew he was taunting her to get it, but she instinctively lunged forward.

But when she got too close, Sturm zoomed six feet behind her, spinning the ball on his index finger.

"Too slow," he said. Amity lunged at him again, and Sturm moved to her right with the ball on the top of his head.

"That was sad."

Amity covered her hands in abomination goo and tried to grab the ball, but Sturm zoomed to her left.

"Ah, you almost got it!" he laughed mockingly as he dribbled the ball.

Yelling in anger, Amity lunged at Sturm as fast as she could, but as always, Sturm was faster. The red-eyed teen zoomed behind her and shot the ball straight at the back of her head. The ball bounced upward as Amity stumbled in pain.

While the ball was still in the air, Sturm leaped toward it and gave it a powerful punch, sending it flying across the field and into the enemy's goal.

When Sturm wasn't busy giving Amity a hard time, he was ruthlessly efficient when he helped the Banshees score points.

The best example was when Sturm realized that the ground tended to leave dust trails whenever someone dragged their feet. This gave Sturm an idea.

While Luz and Willow were on their way to score a point, Sturm zoomed before them, put one hand on the ground, and slid his foot, creating a wall of dust in front of the two girls and making a few pebbles fly toward them.

As the girls shielded their eyes, Willow unintentionally threw the ball upward. Taking advantage of their distraction, Sturmed zoomed over to Willow, jumped on her shoulders, and pushed his legs to leap for the ball while it was still in the air.

Once Sturm caught the ball, he twirled midair and threw it at the goal, giving the Banshees another point.

After a while, Amelia rushed across the field toward her enemy's goal while avoiding the traps. Eventually, the green-haired witch threw the ball at the triangle-shaped goalpost. While catching her breath, Luz approached her with a smile.

"Nice work."

Even though she was surprised by that friendly gesture, Amelia smiled back.

"Thanks," she said, high-fiving the human.

However, when she looked back, Boscha looked annoyed with her. Wanting to stay on her good side, Amelia glared at Luz and crossed her arms.

The game progressed further, and Boscha was losing her patience. While running with the Grudgby ball, she set it on fire and threw it at Luz, who blocked it with an ice pillar using a glyph. The pillar caught the ball. But it quickly melted through the ice, and Luz caught it with her hands as it fell on the other side. Upon closer inspection, Luz saw what appeared to be a glyph imprinted on the ball. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and placed it on the glyph, leaving a distinctive burn mark. Once she tapped on the glyph, the ball caught on fire again.

Luz gasped in amazement upon realizing that she discovered another glyph.

"Fire magic!" she beamed before preparing to toss it. "Amity!"

She threw the ball, and when Boscha and Amelia saw it heading for them, they quickly jumped out of the way.

When the ball flew past them, Amity knocked it into the goal with a giant abomination fist.

When she scored another point, Amity laughed happily, much to Sturm's irritation.

The score was now tied 9-9. Both teams huddled up, discussing their plans.

"Alright, there's time for one more play," Boscha began. "We're done messing around. We don't get distracted; we go straight for whoever holds the ball. That goes especially for you, Sturm! You're not going anywhere near Amity. It was fun the first time, but we need you to win! Got that?"

Sturm sighed in exasperation, but he answered anyway.

"Whatever you say."

With that said, the timeout ended, and once again, the two teams faced each other at centerfield.

The ball was launched into the air, and Luz caught it. As Luz laughed victoriously, Boscha lunged straight at her. Luckily, Amity reacted fast enough.

"Watch out!"

She pushed Luz out of the way of Boscha but got tackled as a result.

"Amity!"

"Luz!" she yelled, trying to get Boscha off her.

"Stop her!" Boscha yelled, pointing at Luz.

Luz looked over at Boscha's team. While Amelia sprinted toward the human almost immediately, Sturm got into position, with electricity faintly crackling around him.

Gripped by fear, Luz immediately ran in the other direction. Sturm charged at her, and when he was about to catch Luz, the girl jumped out of the way, making Sturm zoom past her.

Luz only had a small window of time to execute her plan. She grabbed a plant glyph and placed it on the ground before looking at Willow. Seeing her chance, Willow ran at Luz as the human held the ball above the glyph.

When Sturm realized he'd missed Luz and prepared to run at her again. However, by the time he took the first step, it'd been already too late. Willow grabbed the ball and jumped on the glyph.

Suddenly, a giant column of thorny vines burst from the ground, taking Willow with it and heading for the Banshee's goal. It was called the Thorn Vault, and it was a move inspired by the Azura movie.

Surprised but knowing that he had to stop her, Sturm zoomed to the side of the field and clenched his fist tightly. Then he thrust the fist toward the Thorn Vault and cast a powerful lightning bolt. It was so powerful that it broke the thick column in half.

Unfortunately for him, Willow was at the end of the column. And even though the Thorn Vault was destroyed, she was still heading for the goal.

When the Thorn Vault fell before the goal, Willow jumped and successfully scored a goal.

The time ran out, and Willow's team scored 10 points. Willow created a bush from the ground to break her fall.

Luz was overjoyed. She ran over to Willow and gave her a big hug.

"Whoo! You did it, Willow! We did it! We won!"

Sturm watched from a distance as Luz and Willow looked to the scoreboard, reading 9-10. However, to everyone's surprise, the Banshees' score suddenly changed to 999.

"Wait, what?" Luz and Sturm asked. They saw Boscha holding up a golden insect.

"Oh, thorns," Willow frowned.

"Wh-What happened?" Luz asked.

"She caught the Rusty Smidge."

"The what?"

"Yeah, while you were celebrating your 'victory,' I caught this guy. It means we automatically win. All magic sports are like this," Boscha smirked. But Luz was outraged hearing this.

"That just invalidates all our efforts!" she yelled. "If catching that thing is so important, why do anything else? There's no reason to watch any of the other players! That's such a stupid rule!"

"She's got a point. This felt like a waste of time," Sturm thought, though he hated to admit it. Boscha turned around and walked to Amelia as though she'd heard nothing Luz said.

"Well, we beat them and proved our social dominance. All is right in the hierarchy," Boscha smirked, only to watch Amelia, Skara, and Cat run up to Willow and Luz. "Hey!"

"Good game, Willow!" Skara smiled.

"I had so much fun playing you guys!" Amelia added.

"Oh, really?" Willow asked shyly.

"Willow, you're really good. Would you want to be on our team?" Cat asked.

Willow then looked at Boscha, who had a stunned look on her face. Even though she'd been a bully, Willow could tell that Boscha felt a sense of loss because her friends were not congratulating her. And besides, Boscha was the last person Willow wanted to work with.

"Mm, thanks for the offer, but I think I'm done with Grudgby for a while."

Boscha then turned around, visibly frustrated. There was no way Willow just stole the spotlight again. But a deal was a deal, and she had no choice but to leave her and her friends alone.

While walking, she looked at the ground, rage boiling within her. However, while she wasn't looking, she bumped into something. She stepped back and saw Sturm standing before her with his arms crossed.

"Wow. I've never seen anything like this before. Even though you've won, you've lost."

"Great. Thanks for the pep talk. Now let me leave."

Boscha tried to walk away but was stopped when Sturm grabbed her arm.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, Boschy. You owe me a favor."

Hearing Sturm give her that nickname made Boscha blush with embarrassment, and seeing her crush so close to her didn't help. Sturm was about to say something, but when he saw the look on Boscha's face, he gave her a teasing smile.

"Aw. Now that's cute. Are you blushing?"

Boscha's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly shook her head.

"Just say what you gotta say and go!"

"Hehe. Alright. I already have a favor to ask of you," Sturm started. "You're one of the most popular students around here, right? I need you to pull as many strings as you can and obtain the plans for the layout of the Emperor's castle."

Boscha was surprised to hear this. Of all the things Sturm could've asked for her, this was the one request she did not expect at all. And to obtain the plans for the layout of the Emperor's castle? She had no idea what Sturm wanted to do with them. But whatever it was, it had to be huge.

"The Emperor's castle? I dunno..." Boscha trailed off, scratching her head.

But just then, Sturm smiled, cupped Boscha's face with one hand, and slowly made her look into his red eyes. The three-eyed witch felt like her face was on fire, and she was caught completely off-guard.

But Sturm didn't stop there. He proceeded to speak to her in a low yet sweet voice.

"Please, Boschy. Can you get those plans for me? I'd really, really appreciate it if you did."

"I...um...uh, I..."

Boscha's brain was a mess at that point. What he asked of her was very hard. But looking at that face and hearing that voice? And those eyes? It was a hard thing to say no to.

"S-Sure thing, Sturm. I'll do it."

"Good."

Sturm then did something bold. He pecked Boscha's cheek. Boscha's body went stiff, and her already messy mind was screaming, but her mouth let no word come out.

"I'm counting on you, Boschy," he smiled warmly before finally letting the girl go. "Now move. We both have a lot to do."

Without thinking clearly, Boscha turned and walked away while touching the spot where he'd kissed her.

As Sturm watched Boscha leave, his warm smile turned into a devilish smirk. Who would've thought a mean girl like her could be manipulated with a few well-placed words?

"Hehe. This is too easy."