Karkat Vantas And A Fucking Cherry-Red Stone.
Chapter One: The Worst Introduction. EVER!
A/N: Hello again. No, I am not dead yet. Firstly; sorry for the long wait, but I simply was not satisfied with my old work, so I wrote it again from scratch, now I know, exactly where my story are going. Secondly; I hope you enjoy these chapters better. Thirdly; please tell me, what you think about, what I can do better. I am always open to suggestions and constructive critic.
My apologies for the confusion.
Disclaimer: I do not own neither Homestuck nor Harry Potter and I never will, and neither will you. The end.
And because I am so incredible lazy and I cannot see the point in repeating myself like a brainless moron, this will be the first and last disclaimer in this Fanfiction. Take it or leave it.
Karkat Vantas was no ordinary 10 year old boy, which was something you could tell already by looking at him. His hair was black and ruffled, which made it look something similar to a bird's nest. Already here, we have some unnaturalness; the hair was not only black, but in such a shade that it was somewhat near the colour of a black hole. His skin was so pale that you doubted that he had ever stepped outside in his entire life. Dark circles hang under his eyes, pointing to the fact that the boy clearly didn't sleep well, and this had been going on for quite some time. His clothes covered as much skin as possible, the dark attire making a shocking contrast to the white skin. The kid's height was nothing to be proud of, since he was some good inches below average. His mouth grimaced in scowl, often showing off teeth like a cornered animal would, but his most shocking feature was most possible his eyes. Crimson red, they were. Like poisoned apples, they stared at you with anger, hate and mistrust, always seeking for an escape route.
From a kid, who was showing so many negative feelings and always ready to give a person so much fright, one would think that the Lord at least had graced the kid with a gentle voice or vocabulary, but that was not the case. No, his voice was scratchy, like sandpaper and his words were harsh and insulting, aiming to hurt. Words were after all the only weapon the small boy could use in front of non-magical people. Muggles was the wizarding word for these. Just pointing out the fact that this boy was no near physical strong.
Yes, Karkat Vantas was a wizard himself, not yet under education, but soon he would attend Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the only magical school in Britain. Karkat's older brother, Kankri, was already about to finish his second year and in a few weeks, he would be home, just in time to celebrate Karkat's 11th birthday with their father.
When you saw the two brothers beside each other, you would not be able to tell that they were brothers, not even close relatives. Kankri had brown hair and soft, brown eyes. High cheekbones, a small face, thin lips and a slender figure. Average of high and a friendly nature and person, always making sure that everybody else was in a good mood. Even though that all his hard work was wasted, when they grew irritated of his trigger warnings.
That was the sons, but what about the father, you ask? Well, if you expect some kind of man, who looks like a mix between the two kids, or with some of their features, you would be wrong. A man with dark hair, auburn eyes and pale skin, perhaps? Heh, the truth couldn't have been further away. Their father was a monster. No, trust me, I am telling the truth! He is a monster; a two meter tall, white creature, who looks like some weird lobster with crab-alike legs. He could talk English, but only if he needed to, or else he would just screech or making weird clicking noises. No surprise that his sons are the only ones, who truly understand that language. Everybody else, who knew of the creature's existence, had a vague idea of what the different sounds meant.
Now, you may have guessed that this creature could not possible be the boys' real father, and you are indeed correct. Their parents died almost ten years ago, under the last war against the Dark Lord, Jack Noir, and when the Aurors (wizarding policemen, who hunts down dark wizards, witches and other criminals, in case, you are an unknowing muggle) arrived with a scared three year old and a one year old baby and was told that their parents had just died, the creature hereafter took them in and raised them as his own, it was after all, what beasts like him were known for.
The creature was called a Lusus, which is an almost unknown race, due to their rareness and shy personality. Not many of them are left, because muggles and wizards both hunted them down for their white skin, shell and blood that was (and still is) worth a lot of money. There had never been much information on these. They didn't look alike anything else, but thing the magical people knew about them, was that they since the time of their beginning had taken care of orphaned younglings, humans and animals alike. Despite their frightening looks, they were a kind race.
~naknaknak~
The young soon-to-be wizard was waiting by the window of the local library for the other boys to grow tired of the hunt and return home. Karkat didn't go to school, since it would course more problems than it would solve with the father he had. Too many questions would be asked about the father no one saw. Therefore it would be much better for the brothers to be homeschooled instead. They learned all the basic muggle knowledge by different muggleborns from the Ministry of Magic, who were in fact not too happy to help the orphans, as some of the pureblooded saw it unnecessary and a scandal to the magical world.
When it was decided that the two had finally learned enough from the muggle world, they were introduced to wizard customs and culture. It wouldn't them any good, if they `entered Hogwarts as ignorant mud- muggleborns, ehm´, as a snooty half-blood once said. As he was not a pureblood, he wasn't in any rights or means to even dare whisper the insult. If he had been pureblood, no one would even dare to tell him off.
But back to the story; Karkat had wandered around in the city after his lessons with Mr. Droog (a weird, strict man with too many war-alike stories from his time in school), with nothing to do since Kankri was still at Hogwarts and would first return in a little month's time and nothing interesting on his schedule. He had no idea where he was going, lost in his thoughts about the coming year, where he would finally attend Hogwarts, when he walked headfirst into the chest of one of the older boys from the town. Simon Scratch, son of Doc Scratch himself, who was the principal of the town's school.
To make a long story short, Simon and his gang had bullied, hunted and occasionally beaten the younger boy for years. Being as young as he was, he could never do anything obvious. The thing was that he as often as he could, retort to magic as a solution. Not anything too harmful of course, but a little wind that would help him run faster, make him jump longer or push the other boys away, had never truly harmed anyone, had it? He never told his family about these confrontations and control of magic. See, young Karkat wasn't that stupid. He fully well knew that the amount of control of his magic, he showed wasn't normal. Yes sometimes a burst of accidental magic would help you out of a situation or grant a wish, so to say, but not in this aspect, no.
So there for, he kept it a secret. Not only from his family, but also the magical society. Even from the bullies, who knew that the boy was freaky lucky all the time. A freak was what he was. Just a freak, which needed to be shown his place in the hierarchy. After all, it wouldn't do him any good, letting anyone know of this, would it? His family might try to understand, but would perhaps be frightened, which most likely would be the reaction from the two others. The society might want to exanimate him, which was something he would avoid for all costs. And for the bullies? They would be scared shitless if they knew just half the things Karkat did, no it would be better this way. And after all, it was better being beaten for something, they didn't understand, and able to somewhat defend himself with this power, than being beaten for something they did understand, and perhaps learned how to fight against.
Obviously this "short" story became rather long. Back to the facts; when these bullies hunted Karkat, he liked to hide in the library. Ms. Dodd, the librarian, who was an older lady with thick glasses and her nose always buried in a book, but always knowing, when somebody broke the rules, had taken a liking to the red-eyed boy, who no matter his foul language, was quiet and nice around the books and her.
When the gang was nowhere in sight, Karkat left the library with the promise that he would return and say a proper goodbye to the older lady, before he left for his boarding school (they had told everybody, who would ask that they went to a boarding school in Scotland, because they couldn't very well tell them that they went to a magical castle with unicorns, moving pictures, broom riding and potion making, now could they? No matter what, it would be a very unwise decision.)
"Hey freakazoid!" Oh shit. Simon and his gang had apparently only hid from view and waited for the boy to come out. Not showing anything that could be read as fear, Karkat turned around to meet the bullies.
"What?" he asked in the most disrespectful tone he could muster. Not the most intelligent move, but the kid was only ten, soon eleven, so give him some slack.
"I just want to chat," the boy said and smirked, just to confirm Karkat's theory about that Simon wouldn't only talk.
After this it went downhill. Karkat had some of the fault, annoying the boy senseless, Simon insulting Karkat's dead parents, Karkat not going on a rage fit, but instead calling the other boy a retarded toilet, which Simon didn't react kindly upon. Wonder why?
He stepped closer to Karkat, his shoulders raised and fists clenched, but Karkat didn't have his eyes on the threatening body language. His eyes were instead fixed on a black leather looking rope-thingy, slowly emerging from Simon's breast pocket. It almost looked like a-
"A snake!" Karkat gasped, not realizing that the word had come out like a hiss instead of English. The said snake turned its little black head towards him. Karkat hadn't realized that the other boys hadn't heard the words, the same way he and the snake had. They heard it as a threat and just to make things clear, they didn't like threats from kids, who where younger than themselves.
And a few seconds later, the first fist connected with Karkat's jaw. When he tumbled to the ground in shock, he could taste blood and he slowly and carefully rubbed the sore spot. It was in that moment, Simon commanded the other boys to hold Karkat down, while he kicked him, yelled at him, hit him, insulted him some more and kicked him again, just to be sure. Karkat tried not to scream in pain by each blow, because that would only be the thing Simon wanted, but when the other boy kicked him for the last time, a long scream escaped from his throat, while something that felt like a lot of hot energy, that before was captured inside him, broke free in the same scream.
Karkat didn't hear the other boys' scream or whining. Actually, he couldn't hear a thing. Neither could move and when he tried to speak, his mouth wouldn't even open. The only thing, he could was just to lay there and breathe and search the sky above him for help. He tried not to panic, but not even that, could he muster. A little by little, the sounds came back and the edging fear that loomed over him, disappeared bit by bit together with the panic. He could hear the moaning and shocked sobs from the other boys, but he ignored it and only focused on making his body move. First, he could only wriggle his fingers and toes, but soon he could control face, feet and hands, and lastly legs, arms and torso. Inch by inch, he stood up and looked over the place. Simon and his gangs, lying on the ground about ten feet from him, caught his eyes, but he could see nothing wrong with them, no broken bones or even strong bruising and they soon realized themselves the same thing.
Without hesitating, they stood up quickly, speared Karkat a fearful and shame filled glance, before they turned around and ran as fast as their long legs could carry them, leaving the still sobbing Simon behind them. Great friends, huh?
Something slithered around his angle and Karkat quickly jumped away in panic and shook his foot in a desperate attempt to get the thing away. He didn't recognize the little snake, which was only two feet long, before it lay on the ground again and gave an angry hiss. But to Karkat it wasn't only a hiss. It was actually words.
"Stupid, filthy human!" the words did actually come from the snake. If Karkat wasn't panicking, he would without doubt find this incredible fascinating, but as I just said; he was panicking, and the only thing he could think was; `the snake just spoke! The fucking snake just spoke!´
`But how was that possible? Snakes can't talk, can they?´
"Did you just… talk?" he asked weary. Talking animals didn't sound like a normal thing, even in the wizarding world.
"Of course I did! Or did you think it was your shoe?" Great. Karkat was mental, or maybe the snake could talk and had a sarcastic sense of humor. None of those options sounded good to him.
~naknaknak~
As Karkat talked to the little black snake, it turned out that the snake was female and named Sylvia by her mother, but now had a horrible male name, given by her even worse owner (Karkat had of course responded with giving his own name). When that case was closed, she told him that it was not her, who spoke English, but in fact Karkat, who talked snake language, which was apparently called Parseltongue. As a speaker of this language, Karkat was a Parselmouth. It was a lot of information to take in one bite, but when the boy got his thoughts under control, he asked in a somewhat shaky voice, why the human snake speakers, had a name, when Sylvia had never met one herself before now. So if they were so rare, why did they need a name?
He was then told that she had once met a snake, who was magical, in a dark forest some years ago, before she was captured and sold to that horrid kid. The snake told her that his great grandfather or something like that had met a kid about twenty years ago, who spoke the language and had told the snake, what he was. The kid was apparently some descendent to an old, pureblooded family, who was known for speaking the snake language, but exactly, who they were, the snake had no idea. The kid never came back.
After Karkat had been told this, he secretly hoped that the kid had been his father, an uncle, or maybe a grandfather, but the wish crushed to the ground, when he reminded himself, that both his parents was muggles and so was theirs parents, so there was no hope for either non-magical, being able to speak a language only wizards and witches was able to, if they had the rare gift. As for an uncle, he had never heard of any. In fact, he remembered a time, when he asked, if Kankri and he had any other relatives that their parents, either dead or alive, but the hope of any biological family left was burned to ashes by Crabdad's answer. His voice was grave, when he responded with a single `no´. Knowing that he had somewhat distressed his adoptive father, Karkat promised himself that he would never ask that question again.
In the meantime, Simon had come to his senses, realizing that nothing serious had happened to him. Simon was furious. How dared that kid to punch him (that was, what he thought happened, because such thing as magic surely didn't exist!) and just think that he would get away with it? The freak did not even respect him! After the freak had punched him, he didn't even run away, no he just sat there in the grass in front of Razor, mocking him! When the older boy crept closer, not even noticing his friends had ran the other way, he realized that the freak was pretending that he could speak with his black snake! Such a lunatic!
In only a second, Simon was just behind the freak, Razor lifted its head and hissed threateningly, the young boy turned around in alarm, but before he could do anything else, Simon grabbed him around the neck and lifted the freak up in the air, making him gasp for air. He trashed violently, as soon he came over the first shock. He kicked, hit, scratched and tried to bite, but Simon stopped the fighting with a blow to the boy's head with his other hand that made his vision blur and taste blood again. The kid now only scratched at the hand to release its grab.
"I'm warning you, kid. Don' ever, don' ever go near my snake again. You hear me?!" the last words were spitted out and some of the liquid hit Karkat in his face. If he wasn't about to be strangled, Karkat would have scrunched up his face in disgust.
Thinking that the freak got the point, Simon released him and Karkat fell to the ground, greedily sucking air in to fill his burning lungs. Karkat managed to nod in confirmation, Simon scooped up his pet snake, but when he returned his eyes to the kid, Karkat stood up. Not even realizing, what was going on, Simon received a kick in the gut for all his hard work. Ending in the exact same position as Karkat was in only a minute ago; Simon fell to his knees and gasped for breath.
"Not funny, when it's yourself, is it? Listen fuckass, and you better listen closely, understand? Don't ever do such a trick again, got it?! Remember just fifteen minutes ago, when you and your little brainless goons flew through the air? What makes you think, I can't do it again? Don't ever cross my path again. I'm tired of all your bullshit. Do you. Understand?" Simon nodded furiously, remembering the hit all too well and realized that the kid really was a freak. His dad had been right all along!
Before leaving, Karkat nodded to the snake in the boy's grasp.
"Until next time, Miss Sylvia. Please enjoy your time, and remember that you are more than welcome to bite your little human pet from me," a hissing laughter of agreement was the response.
~naknaknak~
Karkat hadn't meant to blur out his secret, that he wasn't as normal as people believed, but it was too late now. He just hoped that the other boy wouldn't be a problem in the future.
A/N: As you already know, this chapter have been rewritten, so please tell me, what you think? Was it bad, horrible, good?
Anyway, I hope, you liked it.
Over and out – TL.
