A Divinely Zabini and Longbottom Intervention
Title: Year 1: The Black Jackal
Day/Theme: 20. errands and affairs
Series: Harry Potter
Character/Pairing: Neville Longbottom, Blaise Zabini
Summary: Zabini first seeks out Neville on the Hogwarts Express.
Date: 11/10/2010
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"Ah! I've been looking for you." A black boy entered Neville's compartment.
"Uhm...have we met?" Turning to look at the boy who looked no older than himself, Neville scrunched up his brow in confusion.
Giving him an exasperated sneer as he took a seat, the boy twisted his face back into a look of amusement before answering him.
"Not only blood traitors but forgetful, as well? My, you Longbottoms sure do live up to the ineptitude your name implies, don't you?" The boy with the Italian accent looked smug as the vitriol rolled off his tongue.
"No worries, Master, no worries. I should have expected it. After all, you went and came into this world through benefactors not of the clan. The memory loss was to be expected."
Neville couldn't understand what the boy was getting at and what's worse he was talking in riddles. Master? He didn't understand. Summoning up his courage, Neville tried to do something he would never dare to do with his own grandmother, he tried to interrupt.
"That's...nice, but w-who are you?" Neville spat out in a mess of nerves, embarrassment and curiosity.
The Italian boy's eyebrow raised in dark amusement and cruel intentions.
"Right. Let's do that then shall we." He murmured softly, more to himself than for Neville's understanding.
With a flick of the boy's wrist suddenly the room felt softer, hazy, as if fog had somehow surrounded the room without warning, only leaving them in sharp detail.
"To business then, oh Lord of Abydos? Very well." With flourish, the eleven year old motioned to himself, changing his body language subtly to make himself seem more imposing. It was a laughable attempt due to his size and if it wasn't that Neville had such low self-esteem it probably wouldn't have worked so well.
"I am Blaise Zabini. I am the godchild Anubis, former god of Ancient Egypt, your partner on this mission to right the Divine Order by assisting one Harry Potter in his endeavors, and to my eternal disgust and well deserved glee your internationally more famous lackey." He spat this word as if it tasted foul within his mouth. "ever since the reunification of Upper and Lower Egypt. And, I am here to teach, no, drag your spineless-"
"W-wait, wha-what? Gods? Harry Potter? But, what does that have to do with me?" The British boy interrupted his companion for the second time that day. Only to realize that this time his companion was not as pleased to be interrupted, if the scowl on his face was anything to go by.
Grabbing Neville by the scruff of his robes Blaise raised him to eye level, before sneering in a voice that could have been called a purr had it not been as deep as a bark. It was a sound no human and much less an eleven year old should have been able to produce.
"No disrespect meant, but I'm going to tell you this only once, Master Wepwawet, so listen carefully." The hypocrisy wasn't lost on either of them.
"We are here to make sure Voldemort dies and stays truly dead, this time around." The jackel god growled at the question in the boy's eyes. "No, he's not dead!"
"The only bid to greatness that clichéd, overly arrogant Dark Lord has is that he's creative when it comes to breaking the laws, which is why you and me are here to help openPotter'spath to getting the job done. Brat wouldn't have a chance otherwise, you know."
Longbottom made another attempt to speak.
"I'm not done yet, Master." He growled as a warning.
"You? You don't get a choice. I don't care if you don't remember a thing. You chose to be born in that body, so you can forget sympathy." His eyes narrowed in challenge, but when Neville didn't make a move to object he continued. "The Neb-Neter-U1 Clan, the family you were supposed to be born into, has dictated that our mission is to make sure we follow Potter and move around things so he-"
"Wins?" Neville mumbled softly, not sure he was even speaking out loud.
A sharp look assured him he was. "-Doesn't die. Nobody cares if he loses every battle from here until the moment he faces Lord Voldemort." Neville twitched at the name and Zabini thankfully didn't comment as he was too interested in getting his point across to bother. "What matters is that he kills the fool when the time comes. And, that's where we come in; to make sure he survives long enough to get there."
Finally, the future Slytherin let the boy go. Returning to his seat, he picked up Trevor and slowly, almost curiously, looked him over as he allowed Longbottom to mull over his words.
"So, I'm this Wiwat guy."
"Wepwawet, my spineless master. Wep-wa-wet." The not-so-human boy across him chided, voice back to normal.
"R-right...and I have to stalk Harry so he doesn't die, until we want him to?" Neville found the idea of doing anything of the sort to be too unbelievable to be true, it just couldn't be happening to him. And, even if it was true, his clumsiness would definitely alert Harry that something was up.
"Not in so many words, my dear forgetful Master." the future Gryffindor winced as he had the rare foresight to realize that his future would be littered with veiled insults; most from the person in front of him.
"We'll just keep him alive until he's done his piece. Whether or not he survives after that, is completely and utterly upto just how much survival instinct the chit will have left, after everything is done." The dark smirk on the boy's features indicated just how little he thought of Harry's mental stability.
Standing up, with Trevor in tow, Zabini opened the compartment's door and stepped out into the hallway.
"You know what Longbottom, I think I'll send you on a small mission right now. Just to get you used to checking in on Potter." A small chuckle followed this statement. "I'll even give you a good motive."
With a twirl of his wand and an undecipherable mutter, later, Trevor was sent flying down the train's main corridor.
"Trevor!" Neville was horrified at what Zabini had done so callously, right in front of his eyes.
"Oops! I dare say, Master. I think your toad's gone missing. Might want to go fetch it, huh?" Neville sped out of the compartment as quickly as his girth would allow, running as he realized Trevor was nowhere to be found.
From behind him he could hear the dark looking Italian calling out. "Don't worry about me, I'll just find someone to pass the time. You just focus on finding your toad, OK?"
As a girl, who Blaise would later get to know as Pansy Parkinson, was passing him by he decided to put things in motion. "Lucky guy, using his toad to meet Harry Potter."
As Pansy zipped back to her compartment to spread the word that Harry Potter was on the train, Blaise felt accomplished, in the way a guy who was aware of the nature of the divine plan and intended to screw around with it for laughs, could be.
And, the rest was history...
-.-.-.-
AN: Maybe, if enough people like this I could lose what little sleep I get write a couple more chapters.
Wepwawet was an Ancient Egyptian god of war that took the form of a grey or white jackal. He was mistaken for a wolf by the Greeks. Before the reunification he was a war deity of Upper Egypt and Anubis' (god of Lower Egypt) dual counterpart.
The reunification war was a very violent and bloody affair in which Upper Egypt totally crushed Lower Egypt, and both Sekhmet and Wepwawet were worshipped as superior war gods in comparison to Anubis and Bastet. Ironically, the later gods are the ones who are better known today.
After the reunification, Wepwawet's main aspects as god of Death and War slowly got taken over by other gods and he was relegated to be a symbol of royalty until the late New Kingdom dynasties. However, his aspect of Opener of Ways would periodically be enough reason for the Pharaohs to pray to him, especially during times of war so that he would open the way for the Pharaoh's chariot and keep him safe from harm or to gain enlightenment.
1) Egyptian. Meaning 'the Divine Lords'.
