Prologue: Proteus

When Proteus was young his grandmother on his father's side loved to show him muggle films, mostly animated and things she referred to as "classics". Her favourite one to show him was Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, he suspected it was due to the main character's best friend and how he shared a name with them. She would complement the characters selflessness, kindness, loyalty, and nobility to her young grandson. Likely in hopes that he would identify with and live up to the animated man that shared his name. But Proteus was just a kid, he wasn't selfless; kind; or noble. He was withdrawn and only loyal to his family because he had to be. He supposed that he may grow to look similar to the character, aristocratic and attractive features seemed to dominate his entire family tree, he also kept his hair long like the character although his hair was black and not quite past his shoulder blades. Unlike the character, Proteus didn't have the perpetually warm set to his mouth and those trusting brown eyes, no he had almost mischievous set to his grey eyes and an arrogant look about him despite his true reserved nature. For that matter he never even liked the character "Proteus", he thought they were too trusting with no value for their own life and a blatant disregard for the people that depended upon them. However, he saw how people reacted to the perfect prince of Syracuse and envied him. Despite his misgivings with the character he still wanted to be the person everyone, even his grandmother, saw the character as.

Proteus Regulus Black was a pureblood, heir to the Black families titles even though he wasn't from the main line and he had no idea why. All he knew was that a distant cousin named Draco had deemed that when he was of age Proteus would take the Black's seat at the Wizengamot in Britain. Which confused him greatly since Proteus was born in an all Wizarding village hidden close to Yakutsk along the river Lena, in Eastern Russia, and had never set foot in Britain before. He had been 5 when his parents had been informed of Draco's decision and they had been ecstatic. His father had gone on for weeks saying how honoured Proteus should be that he would be responsible for the revival of "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black." His mother urged him not to forget his pureblood heritage through her, claiming that The Bulgarian House of Vulchanov was the perfect match for the fellow ancient house of Black. His mother's father seemed to agree since within days of receiving the news he was preparing to fund what he and Proteus' father deemed the appropriate array of tutors for the heir of The House of Black. Said array included language tutors for English and French, history of magic and general history tutors for both Russia and the U.K., and lastly a fencing tutor. By the time he was 6 he had private lessons from 7 am to 5 pm six days a week, his only day off was Friday and he would spend most of the day with his mother learning what she referred to as "essential charms and curses."

Proteus never had time for friends, while the other kids of the Wizarding village of Munter were playing Quidditch he was listening to snooty ancient looking wizards drone on and on about pronunciation or past events. His only solace was the two hours every Monday and Wednesday of fencing from 3pm-5pm, it was one of the few times he got to leave his parents property since the instructor insisted that he come to her gym for the lessons and since it was within their town his parents agreed. Proteus all but worshipped his fencing instructor Ivanna Sokalov and got along well with her other student, Felix Sokalov, her son who was a year his senior. Both Ivanna and Felix were beautiful, pale with blonde curly hair, had sharp fox-like features, and ice like blue eyes. Ivanna may not have been the warmest woman but unlike his other tutors, she never became frustrated with Proteus when he struggled with an assigned task. Felix being an only child liked to treat him like a little brother and Proteus, also an only child rather fancied the idea of Felix as his older brother.

His life outside of his private lessons was dedicated 100% to family time. His father Leo Cygnus Black was the mayor of Munter and had a steady 9 to 5 - Monday to Friday schedule, his mother Nerida II Rangel Black was a stay at home mom. He ate all his meals with at least one of his parents and always had supper with the both of them. They attended all social and town events together as a family and he was far from neglected. His parents hid nothing from him and he was expected to hide nothing from them in return, but he was also expected to hide things for them. Like the subjects and events of their bi-weekly gatherings they hosted for a select few of their "friends". As long as he listened to them and didn't ask too many questions they treated him like a valuable treasure.

By the time he received his admittance letter for the Durmstrang Institute Proteus could fluently speak, read, and write in English as well as had basic knowledge of the wizarding and general history of the U.K. and his native homeland. His father was reluctant to allow him to leave for school instead wanting to continue his homeschooling, but his mother's family's attachment to the institute had great sway seeing as Nerida's father was funding Proteus' education. The Vulchanov family often viewed Durmstrang as a part of their heritage seeing as Nerida "the first" Vulchanov was the only female Headmaster of the Institute as well as its founder. With that legacy, it was common for people bearing the Vulchanov name to become quite popular and get away with more while attending Durmstrang.