Chapter 6:
"Longbottom." Snape had eyed the class for a long and silent moment before he barked out the name.
"Sir?" It was more of a whimper then a reply and for another moment Snape hesitated.
"You're with Black from now on." Snape finally set the day's potion on the board. "If he says jump, then you jump. For now, go sit next to him and hope he doesn't use you as an ingredient in the latest disaster he's despoiling the atmosphere with...the rest of you dunderheads can shut your mouths and prove to me how badly you failed in preparing for the Hyphus Potion." Snape half-stepped away, then stepped back. "Black, if you make half the mess you made last time you will be on detention until you shake hands with your ancestors."
"Which ancestors?"
"The deceased." Snape swept away to adjust the measures of ingredients on several desks, no point encouraging disaster unnecessarily.
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Minerva McGonagal had firmly believed that nothing could be worse than the cold war which had gripped her house since the advent of Hades Black as a permanent member...she'd had two and a half weeks of proof that Gryffindor was normal without his presence. Gone was the comfortable chaos which was Gryffindor, gone was the cheerful competition and most definitely gone was the cheerful mixing between years. Most of Gryffindor seemed to have taken up Slytherin-style plotting in corners and Minerva was on the verge of despair over Severus' gloating...mostly because Severus was quite accurate in his repeated observations that the situation was not Hades Black's fault, or the result of the boy's machinations. The termination of the cold war in an overt act of open warfare by the seventh years taught Minerva that she had not even scraped the shallowest acquaintance with the worst...the only ray of good cheer she could find in the whole mess was that Black and the Weasley Twins had spent an entire evening staring at each other before calling a truce and agreeing to ignore the fact that the other party existed...and it wasn't half clear that the Weasley Twins had called that truce for reasons other than respect for the rules and house unity.
The Heads of House watched the war rage with mixed reactions. Severus Snape watched with muted amusement and firm support for Hades Black...his principal act was using the special leave to ensure Hades Black was not to be found by Gryffindor on the weekends. Pomona Sprout watched with concern and bewilderment...though she had been known to say that she had no idea why Potter had ever concerned them the previous year. Filius Flitwick was more preoccupied with figuring out why the school was so surprised by the rumours of dark affiliations. Blacks had been dark for centuries...possibly millenium. Sirius Black had made it clear on his release that he was no longer interested in supporting the light, to be noted though the man said nothing about supporting Voldemort and Flitwick had heard that the Dark Lord was more than a little unhappy about his inability to get the Head of House Black assassinated. Minerva McGonagal watched with despair, she was deducting points from her own house by the handful, and worst of all was the fact that she had yet to get Hades Black for anything. The boy came out of commonroom brawls smelling of roses when it came to the school rules. McGonagal could have half the house on detention with a points loss in the hundreds, the remaining quarter were usually in the hospital wing, and yet Hades Black would have to be released without punishment since he never started the fights...infact the boy never willingly interacted with his own house at all. He was the most infuriating student it had ever been McGonagal's misfortune to deal with. In some respects you might even say she wasn't dealing with him since he had a habit of going to Snape when he required a Head of House authority. Salt to the wound was the fact that Snape had started awarding house points to Gryffindor...and only that kept Gryffindor from ending up in negative points.
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"Longbottom." Black's dark expression as he scanned the commonroom earned Neville a wide range of pitying looks. The entire house now knew that Longbottom had been assigned permanently to Black's side, originally only in potions, but soon enough all subjects had seen Longbottom sitting with Black wearing an expression of varying terror. This was the first time Black had actively annexed the boy outside of class-time, and the majority felt extreme pity for the boy.
"W-what?" Longbottom cringed even more as the cold eyes found him.
"We need to talk if you have a moment."
"I promise, I've tried not get in your way." Longbottom almost fell over as he jumped to his feet.
"Don't be a fool." Black moved to his usual window and pulled some pages out of his bag.
"W-w-w..." Longbottom hesitated near the boy.
"Grab a seat either on the sill, or with a chair you steal from somewhere." Black glanced up. "To clear matters up, for all Snape's obnoxious personality he's not such a moron as to inflict me upon you without cause...I doubt he realised that the other professors were going to follow his lead."
"Um?" Longbottom gaped at Black.
"Sit." Black grabbed the boy and yanked him down to sit on the other end of the windowsill. "Read this."
"Sir..."
"Spike or Black." Black didn't even look up from his notes.
"Black, why are so many people looking at us?"
"Because they're nosy." Black glanced up briefly. "That and I put up a ward which means they can't hear what we're talking about."
"Black?"
"Side note, I have one hell of a temper, but I'm not inclined to the cannibal." Black looked up calmly. "I can, and probably will, yell at you. I'll probably even call you names at times. It's not personal and it certainly will be no reflection on you as a person. Just ask my brothers if you don't believe me." Black was silent for a moment. "Infact, regardless of what happens, if I confuse the hell out of you, go to one of my brothers for a translation. They're pretty good at it." Black scowled suddenly. "Did I not say read?"
"Sorry." Longbottom hastily started reading the page, though it would be ten minutes before he consciously realised that he was actually reading English and it should be making sense...which it wasn't.
When Black packed them up for supper, Longbottom had half a foot of scribbled notes on things he was to research and a complete lack of knowledge of why it was important. Longbottom was reading his notes as he shuffled away from the windowsill.
"You alive, Longbottom?" It was Percy Weasley who asked the concerned question.
"Oh, fine." Longbottom jumped slightly, realising that almost every eye in the house was turned to him. "He's a bit intense, but not bad as long as he stays on topic." Longbottom glanced at his page of notes again.
"He gave you homework?" Ron seemed horrified as he looked over Longbottom's shoulder.
"No." Longbottom shoved the page into his pocket. "Just some notes about things I didn't understand."
"Show it to Hermione." Ron gave a laugh. "She can explain anything."
"Yeah." Longbottom gave a weak smile before hastily shuffling off, hopefully no one was going to realise that he wouldn't be going near Hermione. He needed to do this work himself, if only just to prove to himself that he could do the work. For some reason it felt very important that he fail miserably over asking for help from someone who was not a Black...or Snape.
"You look like a man who's been cornered by Hades Black." The cheerful voice caught Longbottom in the Entrance Hall and he turned uncertainly in search of the owner. It was Fai'lo Black accompanied by a small girl whose hair was almost as pale as his own.
"I feel like that too?" Longbottom hesitantly proferred the response. An afternoon in Spike's intense company and he had a feeling that was the appropriate response.
"No, you state it with confidence, not doubt." Fai'lo grabbed an arm and headed for the Great Hall. "Try again."
"I feel like that too." Longbottom actually gave a small smile as he snapped off his reply.
"Perfect." Fai'lo pushed Longbottom down onto a bench. "This is your cordial invitation to eat with us...thus ensuring no interruptions while I attempt to persuade you that Hades' bite isn't half so bad if you do anything with confidence...including such idiocies as screaming his entire name in the middle of the Great Hall." Fai'lo had sat down. "This, by the way, is Luna Lovegood. She's good with animals and has an uncanny grip on the gossip network of Hogwarts."
"Neville Longbottom."
"Wonderful, then we all know each other...or at least I'm assuming you remember me from the fuss at our Sorting.
"Fai'lo is a pretty odd name." Longbottom tilted his head slightly to one side.
"That is true." Fai'lo seemed momentarily pensive. "So, what's caused my brother to inflict his personality on you?"
"Professor Snape assigned me as his potions partner." Longbottom was glum. "Then all the other professors followed suit...at least Professor Snape had a reason. Or, to be precise Black told me that Professor Snape had a reason."
"Ahh, and dear old Hades would never even dream on changing his year plan to suite his lab partner." Fai'lo gave a slow nod before glancing sideways at Longbottom. "Would you believe me if I said you'd be fine if you simply follow Hades and do what he suggests?"
"Well, I can't do worse than I am doing...except for not turning up to class." Longbottom rubbed his nose.
"Well, I'll back Hades against even Malfoy's morons." Fai'lo gave a small smile. "But don't take anything personally...unless he rips into you in the manner he tends to destroy Granger and Weasley. I've known Spike to stalk around the house glowering fit to burn the place down for no other reason than because a House Elf dared to sharpen his blades. There was also the time when he couldn't find a reference he remembered. One of my favourites was the time when Malfoy relabelled his supplies. It was three entire weeks before he stopped stalking around with a permanent glare muttering death threats under his breath. It's the charm of Hades. Just ignore his sulks, the more he scowls I suggest the more straight you stand when you approach to hit him with a book and ask if he really wants you to count ant eyes for the whole day." Fai'lo's eyes went sober. "He'll get crankier the more you cringe, so do yourself a favour and don't cringe."
"Do you know any books which might help me understand what he's doing?" Longbottom fingered the paper in his pocket.
"No." Fai'lo pulled a bit of paper from his pocket, scribbled a note on it and tapped it with his wand. The 'plane leapt from the table-top and shot over to the Gryffindor Table, shrieking like a muggle emergency vehicle.
"Har, har." Hades Black dropped with a heavy clunk onto the bench opposite his younger brother, before handing the paper back. "Books query is not informative."
"I asked him if he knew any books which might give me a handle on what you're doing." Longbottom had grabbed his non-existant nerve and blurted it out.
"Neutralising bases." Hades had blinked for a moment before settling more comfortably on the bench. "Potter created a basis which neutralises anything. Unfortunately only Potter could create the stuff...and his verbal directions don't produce the same result. Snape set me the project for this year to try and replicate the base so someone other than Potter could create it. In particular he wants me to find it before he runs out of the Potter base." Hades gave a shrug. "I'm afraid there are no books specific to the topic. Start by understanding ingredient interaction and it goes from there. What does it take to stop the interaction?"
"Interaction?" Longbottom blinked in confusion.
"You planted Snapdragons and Dandylions together?"
"No." Neville flinched at the mere suggestion. "They fight."
"Snapdragons and passive daisies?"
"Again no." Neville gave a small grimace before frowning. "You mean you're trying to find a...means to put everything in the same bed?"
"Pretty much." Hades gave a faint smile. "A means to stop the fight without changing either participant."
"That's not second year potions."
"Potter did it in first year."
"Only because I would have plastered our potion all over the ceiling if he hadn't." Neville gave a snort and then blinked in surprise. Had he just snarked at Hades Black?
"Good, because in about a month's time I'll probably need you to put your best exploding foot forward." Hades gave a brief nod before returning back to the Gryffindor table to return his attention to his book.
"Told you he wasn't half so bad if you ignored his bite." Fai'lo was grinning.
"Do...oh." Neville abruptly leapt to his feet and scurried over to grab Ginny Weasley before returning to his seat. "Ginny said she knew Luna last week, I...she's been studying Herbology with me."
"You're good at Herbology?" Fai'lo had straightened and was studying Neville with a certain fixity of expression. "You help me and Pluto with Herbology and I will blackmail, bribe or otherwise torment Hades and Pluto until they will give you any help you want in those nasty subjects with wands...don't even consider asking them about History, it isn't worth the agony of how atrocious they are." Fai'lo paused for a moment. "Better yet, I'll blackmail Malfoy to help with potions...he actually can sometimes understand Spike and he has a near magical ability to translate that to English...If he weren't a Malfoy I'd give him grief until he displaced Snape...Now, spill, Spike's gone all stoic and won't talked about you Gryffies. What are the nitwits up to?"
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