A/N: So, this story is getting an official prequel, called Frozen Memories. Considering how this story starts, you can all guess how that one is going to ultimately end
Published: 1/13/2018
Warnings: None
Italics: Sora
Underline: Ventus
Chapter 12
First Morning
Harry, don't you dare young man.
'Awe, come on. I just wanna-'
NO! And that's final. Now, stop this or so help me, I will ground you for li-
Ah, come on, Ven, Sora shameless echoed Harry, Let him go sit with his friends! Friends are important!
Stop undermining my authority! And I don't care if he goes near his friends, the one he isn't allowed near is Vanitas!
Seriously. Dora is a nice boy-
'Dora' tried to kill one of my bestfriends while using my body to do it! 'Nice' isn't in his vocabulary!
Harry groaned and shoved his head into a pillow, letting loose a short scream. His parents had been arguing about the subject for at least an hour. Harry, used to rising early, had awoken before anyone else. With a cheerful grin, he had told Sora and Ventus his plans on sitting at the Gryffindor table this morning with Dean and Hermione.
And thus, it had begun. They'd been going at it for so long that Harry was no longer the only one awake.
Harry's roommates eyed him oddly as Harry let out a tiny pent up scream.
"Mate, Harry, is everything alright?" Justin spoke up hesitantly.
Harry easily plastered a smile over his face as he looked up, grinning. It was a little disturbing how good he was at faking those, actually. Huh. Maybe that annoying hat did have a point when it said Harry had Slytherin tendencies.
"I'm perfectly fine. It's just so new, you know." Harry said.
Zacharias gauffled at the words as they all turned to look at the blond. "Oh please, Potter. We all know you've been training to be a magical prodigy since birth. What else would be expected of the boy who lived?"
… I don't like blondie. Hm. He reminds me of a certain someone...
FOR THE LAST TIME, SORA, JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS BLOND DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE LIKE ME!
I didn't say that! Harry, did you hear me say that?
Harry easily tuned out their quarrel with all the practice and ease of someone who's done it a thousand times over. Instead, he shot Zacharias a confused look. It didn't take much. He really was confused by the other boys words, so faking an expression wasn't necessary.
"What on earth are you talking about? I was raised by my Muggle relaties, who didn't even admit magic was real to me until last year." Harry revealed.
Zacharias blinked as the rest of Harry's roommates looked startled at the revelation. Then, Zacharias' face broke into a sneer.
"Yeah right! Come off it, Potter, we all know the truth!"
Harry sat up, sporting a look Sora had mastered long ago. A frown-pout. Sora affectionately called it the frout. Ventus affectionately called it Sora's stupid face.
"With all due respect, you don't know anything about me, and I don't know anything about you either. Why are you even so angry?"
Zacharias didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, with an upturned nose, the blond made his way out of the dormitory, the door slamming shut behind him with an audible thud.
Harry turned to look at the rest of his dorm mates. Justin, Ernie, Wayne, and Neville all looked as lost as Harry felt.
"... So. Who's hungry and knows how to navigate giant castles?"
I do! I don't like them very much, though. There's usually an evil villain cackling at the end of the road with some twisted plot and yadda yadda yadda.
You're exaggerating, Sora. Why do you always exaggerate?
Oh yeah? What happened the last time you walked into a castle, huh mister? Oh wait, you didn't make it past the front gate before being confronted by the cackling evil!
Harry blinked as he had a mental flash of what he could only describe as a Dark Jedi chasing a fleeing Ventus around. Huh. Whatever. With a smile on his face, Harry was determined to make the best of his first day at Hogwarts.
Vanitas was not having a good day. Not at all.
He'd been sorted into the house of the goody two shoes. He had no idea where Ventus was, only that he was somewhere in this blasted castle. That annoying twerp, Ornitier, had been sorted into the same house as him, and, most annoying of all…
"Are you part werewolf? Is that why your eyes are all yellow and glowly?"
A few feet away from Ventus, Ronald Weasley was shaking in his bed. Apparently, the redhead hadn't noticed Vanitas' eyes until this morning, upon which he had assumed Vanitas was going to transform randomly upon them all and eat him.
Vanitas rolled his eyes. How Ornitier managed to avoid this type of harassment, when he literally looked like a walking, talking Heartless, was beyond Vanitas. Actually, it added a good deal to his ire. He had to corner the brat later and get the secret out of him. And avoid possible flare spells.
"No, Weasley. For the last time. I am not a werewolf!" Vanitas snapped.
"I don't know. You definitely got weird eyes, mate." Seamus Finnigan said, and, with a tilt of his head, shamelessly stared into Vanitas' golden eyes.
Eyes which Vanitas rolled. Again.
"I'm not a bloody werewolf. I am, however, getting annoyed." Vanitas growled out menacingly. Weasley, in a very unGrynffindorish move, squeeled. Vanitas eyed the redhead with annoyance. How that had been placed in the House of the Brave was beyond Vanitas.
Then, Weasley met his gaze head on and… It seemed like something just clicked in the other boy. Weasley growled right back as he gripped his sheets fiercely. Vanitas blinked. Oh? What was this? Interesting, interesting.
"If you are… I won't let you hurt anyone else!"
Vanitas rolled his eyes. Again.
"If I was, I doubted the Headmaster would have let me in. Who lets a werewolf into a school, anyways?" Vanitas had a brief mental image of Saix, the closest thing he could think of to a werewolf, masquerading as a student and shuddered. That would not turn out well. Saix was perhaps the only person Vanitas knew with bigger anger problems than his own.
In his office, Dumbledore sneezed. In a small house in an undisclosed location in France, Remus Lupin did the same.
"He's got a point. Besides, its just weird eyes. Did you see that Hufflepuff next to Harry? She was changing her hair color at random, from blue to pink to red." Dean told Ron plainly.
Ron faltered.
"Yeah, but…"
"Whatever. I'm done with you humans." Vanitas rose, stretching out a bit. Then, without missing a beat, the boy tossed himself to the ground and began his morning reps. The other boys blinked.
"What… What are you doing?" Seamus asked.
"What does it look like?" Vanitas said between pushups. "These muscles of mine didn't magically appear all on their own, after all." Okay, so they totally had and he had been born looking like this, but they didn't need to know that.
The Battle for the Slytherin Common room would go down in the secret records of Slytherin House. Unknown to all, the members of Slytherin kept a rather accurate record of the ongoings of Hogwarts. Access to said records was restricted, and only a select few in the school knew anything about it. They did, of course, have agents scattered across the houses, if only for proper accuracy for events.
The current events that were being recorded had no need for outside agents.
It was horrible.
It was terrifying.
It was an utter work of art.
Eiko Carol smiled to herself as she stood above a pile of groaning Slytherins, most of them several years her senior. Wiping her hands, the hell child smirked. Several feet away from her, Draco Malfoy whimpered as he backed away slowly.
"Does anyone else wish to oppose my rule?" Eiko smiled sweetly at them all.
A frigid ice spell collided against Eiko's shield, bouncing off the reflect spell and gazing the ground around her. Eiko turned towards the assailant. Daphne Greengrass stalked forth, brandishing her wand.
"Don't do it!"
"She's a demon!"
"Not human!"
"Run away!"
Daphne twirled her wand in hand, a fierce look in the girl's cobalt eyes.
"I won't let you do this. If anyone will rule the Slytherins… It's me."
Eiko gave a twisted laugh as she grinned evilly.
It was in that moment that Daphne actually woke up. Blinking several times, the blond girl groaned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. Huh. What a weird dream. Why would she dream that anyways?
One quick glance around the torn up dorm answered all of Daphne's questions. Oh. Right. That. She and Carol had fought, but it hadn't been for the control of Slytherin House. It had been for the control of the Slytherin First Years. Draco Malfoy had attempted to join in, but Carol had wacked him over the head with a racket of all things, taking him out of the running.
Daphne didn't remember going to bed, though. What she did remember was dodging spells back and forth against that little demon child, and the damage showed. Yes, all the furniture they'd destroyed had been seemingly restored, but you couldn't exactly hide scorch marks.
Daphne twisted off the bed and attempted to stand. Keyword her being the word attempt. Her muscles failing her, the 11 year old groaned as she nearly fell over, her only saving grace being the cabinet beside her upon where she rested her weight. What in the world?
"Last night," a cool, silky voice rang out, and Daphne forze, "I received reports of 'strange sounds' coming from the First Year Dormitories. Imagine, my surprise, at finding a pair of First Years trading spells back and forth like a pair of Gryffindors."
Slowly, Daphne turned her head. There, sipping tea and acting as if it were the most natural thing in the world, was Professor Snape. He sat reclined in a chair in the corner of the room, sipping at his cup before setting it down on the small round table before him.
Snape's eyes gleamed. Several feet away, Daphne noticed Carol herself twist in her sleep, a snore falling from the midget's lips as she did so.
"Professor." Daphne acknowledged.
Snape twitched. Then, he took another sip.
"Whatever internal conflicts we have, I suggest the pair of you get it under control. We Slytherin must always present a united front to the school. You should know this, Miss Greengrass. Now, get out of my sight, before the breakfast in the Great Hall gets cold."
A sudden flash of adrenaline was all it took to get her aching muscles to move. Daphne, still clad in the same clothes that she had arrived the previous night in and her hair a messy array of jags pointing every which way, sped out of the dormitory like a bat out of hell.
With a sigh, Snape turned his eyes to the other sleeping girl. If Potter arriving wasn't bad enough, he now had to put up with this. Snape personally didn't know anything about the sleeping girl, but he could already tell that she was going to be a pain.
Vivi had successfully made his way down to the Great Hall. Being put in the same dorm room as the scary boy from the train hadn't been fun, but the hat had insistent that it was the perfect place for him. Why it thought Vivi, of all people, belonged in Gryffindor was beyond him, but still.
Maybe it was because Vivi wasn't human?
Vivi wasn't sure what he was, just like Eiko wasn't sure what she was. Vivi had dark light sucking skin. Eiko had a literal horn growing out of her head. For whatever reason, most couldn't actually see those features. So far, the only person Vivi had met that could see his true form was Eiko, and she had told him plainly that it was the same for her. Only Vivi could see her horn.
The pair of them didn't know what made them different, but getting a letter to Hogwarts, they had assumed that it might explain a few things.
Except, no, it hadn't, because everyone else here with the exception of Hagrid looked perfectly human, thank you very much. And, either the others couldn't see or it was common place enough that no one bothered commenting, although Vivi was pretty sure it was the former.
Still. He wanted to find Eiko. She was the only person in this place who-
"Ah!" Vivi gave a small shriek as he collided with something tall and solid and wearing dark robes.
"Oh! Sorry, my ba- hey, you're the kid from the train!"
Vivi gulped and looked up. Dark robes with a yellow trim, startling green eyes and a pair of eskew glasses that looked like they'd been pulled right off the clearance section at Walmart. He had collided with Harry Potter. The Harry Potter. Vivi squeaked.
Harry looked at him oddly for it, but offered a hand nonetheless. Vivi took it, and felt himself pulled up.
"How was your first night?" Harry smiled at him as he began to walk forward, evidently expecting Vivi to follow. Which he did.
"It was okay." Vivi lied through his teeth. In truth, he'd shot Vanitas occasional looks all night long and had only been able to sleep after he was sure the other boy was out for the count. And, even then, he hadn't sleep much and had run out of the dormitory like a bat out of hell the second he'd been up.
"How's Dora treating you? He made a real scene last night with the whole threatening the Sorting Hat thing." Harry spoke as he, oddly enough, sat at the Gryffindor table. Vivi wasn't going to question it though as he sat down right next to him.
"Who?" Vivi was flummoxed, his mind providing the mental image of a little Mexican girl asking him where the Shining Moon Bridge was. Then, the rest of Harry's words registered.
The one who had threatened the Sorting Hat.
Vivi was glad he hadn't started to eat, because he choked up a bit. Harry arched an eyebrow before chomping down on a sausage.
"You call that monster Dora?!"
Harry shrugged. "Inside joke. Pancakes?" Harry offered.
Merlin's beard. How Potter wasn't sorted into Gryffindor while he himself was, Vivi would never know.
