Chapter 30
Dorian had been dreading the day of his return to Hogwarts, not necessarily that he would be returning to school, mostly because he was going to have to ride the train. As always Dorian had packed, unpacked and repacked his trunk a couple dozen times and even went so far as to completely empty the contents of his satchel to see if there was anything in there he had forgotten about and then try to organize it, he was a bit surprised when he found the dragonhide long coat that he had forgotten about from his vault and placed that back in his satchel as it was still just a bit too large for him length wise but his broad shoulders from his numerous jobs and random work outs made it fit pretty well. After going over his supplies, organizing his trunk and satchel he had nothing left to do in order to kill time so he decided to get one last attempt at filling his entire body with magical energy so he could attempt broomless flight soon. Dorian felt the magical energy surging from his head to almost his knees when he heard Professor McGonagall knock on his bedroom door. Dorian opened his eyes, losing focus and sighed a bit before standing and taking another look at his room and made sure it was well kept, bed was made etc. before side-along apparating with Professor McGonagall to an alleyway across the street from Kings Cross Station.
Dorian was dressed in a plain white t-shirt, jeans and some trainers as he pushed his luggage cart through Kings Cross Station and made his way towards platforms 9 and 10 to wait get to platform 9 ¾. Dorian arrived early and simply sat down so he could watch the people milling about, some seemingly in a rush and he couldn't help but smile at the thought that they had no clue what was actually in the world, he had seen and read many books about vampires, elves werewolves and the like and he found it amusing that even after the statute of secrecy went into effect muggles had kept the stories of magic and creatures alive thinking they were all the figment of someones imagination, humans were quite creative and clever but not that creative and clever. When it was time Dorian was the first to cross through the pillar and onto the platform. Dorian made short work of putting his trunk away before getting on the train to change into his school robes and look at the prefect pin and think how out of place it felt on his chest.
Inside the train Dorian could hear other students arriving and he was technically supposed to help load trunks and whatnot onto the train and assist with the younger students but decided against it and made his way to the prefect cabin on the train to wait for the meeting with the other prefects along with the head boy and head girl. The cabin, to Dorian's surprise was quite spacious and comfortable as it needed to hold ten people for the duration of the start of term meeting. Dorian moved off to the far corner of the cabin and laid across one of the cushioned bench seats, he couldn't really see much else in the cabin do to the position he was in along with the table the meeting would presumably be held at and soon heard the head boy and head girl enter and set a stack of parchment on the table and start discussing among themselves about how to go about the meeting, who would cover what topics so on and so forth before they finally started going through the parchments to find the list of prefects.
"Penny Walker is the female Hufflepuff prefect? That's good, always thought she would make Prefect one day." the head girl said.
"Yeah, seems we have a lot of good people this.. Wow… How did he make prefect?" the head boy asked more to himself than the head girl, though Dorian couldn't actually see them he could almost picture their faces when they saw his name on the list of prefects.
"That's gonna be interesting.." the head girl said, only receiving a grunt of agreement from the head boy.
"Well I guess we'd better go and round them up." the head boy said and a few seconds later the door of the cabin opened and closed leaving Dorian once again in silence for about 30 blissful minutes before the door opened once again and several sets of feet marched in catching Dorian's attention.
"What do you mean you don't know where he is? He has to be on the train for the meeting!" The head boy nearly shouted.
"I… Do… Not… Know." Fiona answered slowly, a subtle dig at the head boys intelligence which seemed to go right over his head.
"Well I'll definitely be speaking to Professor Snape about Dorian not showing up to the meeting as required by the school rules. How did he make prefect anyway?" the head boy asked Fiona, thinking she might know.
"Fuck you that's how." Dorian said sitting up just in time to see 9 heads turn so quickly in his direction that he feared they might get whiplash.
"How long have you been there?" the head girl asked.
Dorian lifted his left arm and looked at his wrist even though he didn't have a watch.
"Well I got here at a freckle past a hair so long enough to hear you two discuss how to run this meeting, great planning by the way, have the head girl speak to the female prefects and the head boy speak to the male prefects, killer plan. No chance of you two forgetting something that only half of the prefects hear, clearly Dumbledore and his infinite wisdom made the only logical choice in electing you two as head boy and head girl." Dorian said before getting off the bench seat and walking to the table and sitting at the seat closest to the door. While the head boy's face turned a deep red in anger.
"Why do you talk to people like that? Insult them?" The male Hufflepuff prefect asked.
"Two reasons. Number A, if you are an idiot and everyone congratulates you for it how are you going to improve? Number B, because the faces people make when they hear how stupid their ideas are when voiced by someone else is fucking hilarious." Dorian said, knowing that his 'number a, number b' thing would irk the head boy who was a Ravenclaw as much as his insulting of their meeting plan.
"Perhaps we should sit down and just have an open discussion for the meeting?" Penny suggested trying to keep the peace while shooting Dorian a look that all but told him to shut his mouth.
Dorian struggled to stay awake as the head boy started running through what seemed like every rule and variation of it Dorian once again grew agitated.
"Is there a rest stop between now and the fucking point?" Dorian asked, once again getting a look of pure anger from the head boy.
"You think you could do better?" The head boy challenged.
"In twelve words, 'if it's something Dorian would do, don't do it.'." Dorian said.
"That was only nine words." one of the Ravenclaw prefects said.
"Count again.." The head boy corrected the Ravenclaw prefect knowing Dorian was going to count his 'in twelve words' to his nine word statement and looked at Dorian not sure what to say in response to his explanation on rule breaking.
The meeting wrapped up soon after the head girl took over the meeting and explained about night patrols being the responsibility of the prefects along with the staff, any detentions doled out by prefects had to have a report filed through the headboy/girl and the report would then be sent to the offending students head of house. After the meeting was dismissed Dorian went back to his bench seat he had previously been laying on and laid back down, closing his eyes only for Penny to sit across from him on the opposite bench along with Fiona.
"Kinda moved over here to be away from everyone." Dorian said, not bothering to look at Fiona or Penny.
"Oh I know, you're planning on planting more contraband on me aren't you?" Dorian said sarcastically.
"Actually you asshole we wanted to apologize." Fiona said.
"Yes, we should have gone about it a different way but you're kind of hard to figure out." Penny added.
"There's a reason for that." Dorian said sitting up and looking at the two girls.
"You think that I might have my own reason for breaking rules? Why if I was to partake in that banned liquid that there would be a very valid reason?" Dorian asked.
"What do you mean 'if'? I saw you with my own eyes!" Fiona said angry that he would blatantly deny something that she witnessed him doing firsthand.
"Ah but there's the kicker, you say I did something, and try to get me in trouble for it but that doesn't work out so your credibility is shot while mine just looks even better. Your word against mine and all that." Dorian said with a smirk before standing and cracking his back.
"Now if you don't mind I'm going to find some place quieter, don't think I'll get much rest here." Dorian said before leaving the compartment and walking down the train finding an empty cabin and stepping inside before locking the door both manually and magically before pulling the curtains so no one could see in, at least not easily.
Penny was upset while Fiona was livid. The two had grown close over the summer sending owls back and forth, outside of her Mum and Da' Fiona was the first to know that Penny had made prefect and vice versa.
"It's OK Penny, we'll get him to listen even if I have to kick his ass." Fiona said but Penny just nodded, she had picked up another bottle of alcohol, not Ogden's but liquor just the same in the event that they tried to plant it in his room but with him making prefect as well the chances of that actually happening were slim to none, Penny sighed and decided she would just drink it herself, in secret the way Dorian had.
After the train had stopped at Hogsmeade station and the first years were directed to the boats with Hagrid, Dorian made his way to the carriages and said hello once again to the Thestral pulling the carriage he planned to get in, luckily the others that joined him were some second or third years that had heard plenty about him but were too scared to speak to him and unfortunately for them couldn't get out of the carriage before it had started to move so the ride to the castle was filled with awkward silence.
After the sorting ceremony and start of term feast Dorian stood at the end of the Slytherin table to wait for the first years with Fiona who was trying to burn a hole in the side of his head from staring when all the first years gathered.
"Keep up, you get lost I won't go back and look for you." Dorian said before turning on heel and leaving the Great Hall to begin the tour. After going through some generic history that they had probably already read in Hogwarts: A History and pointing out some of the classrooms, which teachers taught in the classrooms Dorian got to the subject of bathrooms.
"The bathrooms. If I catch any of you boys going into the girls bathrooms I will make certain that you will spend the rest of your time at Hogwarts in detention with Filch, if it happens on a bad day you'll need assistance with the stairs for the rest of your lives." Dorian said when one of the first years piped up.
"I heard you are American, why are you hear threatening us instead of attending Ilvermorny?" the first year said.
"Good question. Do you know how many ghosts Hogwarts has?" Dorian asked and the first year shook their head. Dorian directed his hand to the first year and much the same as he had done in the common room the year before the first year slid unwillingly towards Dorian until he had snatched the first year by the collar and picked them up so they were looking over the railing of the staircases, being on the fourth floor it was a pretty sizeable drop.
"Any more stupid questions and you'll join the masses, then you'll have plenty of time to meet and count every ghost." Dorian said before setting the first year back down who had a look of pure terror in their eyes.
"If you do that again I'll send you over the railing myself you prick." Fiona said, wand in hand and aimed at Dorian who simply looked at her and smiled.
"I'll finish the tour, get the fuck out of here." Fiona said with a disgusted tone.
"Bye kids. See you later." Dorian said before whistling the same song he had been whistling, humming or singing for a couple of years now.
"Sorry about him, he's got a few screws loose. He used to be pretty decent but anymore… Well let's get on with it, still have the astronomy tower and greenhouses." Fiona said before continuing on with the tour. Dorian made his way seemingly back towards the dungeons when he heard Penny directing her first years through the halls. Dorian ducked behind a tapestry once again and transformed into his rabbit form once again before hopping out and making his way towards Penny, hopping alongside her until one of the first years noticed and said 'Bunny!' which caused Penny to take notice of the little tan rabbit and pick it up and kiss it on top of the head.
"Hey buddy, I've missed you!" Penny said before explaining that the rabbit was skittish around people so unless the rabbit approached them don't try to pet it, she then went into the story of how her friends had scared the rabbit into the forest and when she went to try to get it she got lost and needed help getting back out. Penny continued the tour with her male counterpart, gently petting the rabbit she carried in her arm.
"Wow… Managed to go the whole train ride but as soon as you get a chance you hop right into her arms.." Dorian's brother said in his head.
"Fuck off alright, you're the one that has an issue with her, I understand why she did what she did and I forgave her." Dorian answered back, arguing with his brother.
"Yet you only show her affection in the rabbit form."
"I'm not discussing this with you."
"Fine fine, but did you notice that she looks at the rabbit a bit sadly? I'll bet five galleons she names the rabbit Dorian."
"Yeah, you need to shut up now."
After the tour wrapped up Penny walked with the rabbit into her room and grabbed the bottle of whiskey she had before looking at the rabbit.
"Wanna go and look at the stars with me?" Penny asked the rabbit as she shrank and then pocketed the bottle of whiskey before picking up the rabbit and walking with it towards the Astronomy tower knowing it would be abandoned by now. Dorian didn't know what to do or how to react when he saw her with the bottle so he figured wait and see was his best course of action. The entire walk to the tower was quiet except when Penny muttered under her breath about "that asshole", Dorian knew she was talking about him but he needed to keep the fact that he was an animagus a secret so he didn't transform and stayed in his rabbit form listening to Penny vent about him. As they reached the Astronomy tower Penny set the rabbit down gently and sat in a chair looking out onto the school grounds and out at the night sky before grabbing the bottle from her pocket and returning it to its regular size.
"You know bunny.. I really miss that asshole. I- I know what I said and did was horrible and he has every right to be mad but.. Part of me wishes we could just go back to how we used to be." Penny said and a single tear trailed down her cheek before she opened the bottle of whiskey and took a drink. The rabbit hopped over towards Penny and into her lap before standing on its hind legs and touching its forehead to Penny's. Penny smiled and pet the rabbit on its head before taking another drink, the rabbit hopped from her lap and bolted down the stairs and out of the same area of the astronomy tower. Penny figured the rabbit didn't like that she was drinking. The rabbit actually went just outside of the Astronomy tower and waited a few minutes before the rabbit turned back into Dorian who then entered so that he could talk to her, maybe get her to stop drinking.
"Oh, how sweet."
"Not now asshole." Dorian grumbled out as he made his way up to where Penny had been only to see her sitting in the same spot and unsuccessfully trying to hide the bottle.
"W-What are you doing here?" Penny asked curiously, her eyes slightly glassy from the alcohol.
"Well I was removed from the first year tour by Fiona and I ran into a rabbit, every time I tried to go around it it hopped in front of me so I couldn't move and then went down a hallway a bit, turned around to make sure I was following it, led me here." Dorian said blatantly lying but as smart as Penny thought the rabbit was and with her being inebriated she believed every word of it.
"He's a good bunny.." Penny said with a slight smile.
"So, what have you got there?" Dorian asked, nodding to her bottle.
"N-nothing!" Penny said, much too defensive for her lie to be believable.
"There is only room for one alcoholic student at Hogwarts and I will defend my title." Dorian said dropping his wand into his hand and summoning it with a quick flick of his wrist, the bottle flying into his empty hand before he took a couple of large gulps of contraband.
"Wow, so you ignore me and then you steal my whiskey after claiming to not drink? You're a fucking asshole." Penny said.
"Careful Biscuit, I defend that title as well." Dorian said with a laugh before penny ran over and hugged him tightly.
"Uh.. What the fuck is this?" Dorian asked but Penny didn't let go of his, in fact her grip tightened as she looked up at him, her eyes welling up with tears but a smile on her face.
"Call me 'Biscuit' again." Penny said.
"Only if you promise to never drink while at school again." Dorian said, knowing full well how hypocritical that sounded.
"Only if you promise the same." Penny shot back.
"Wow.. Kinda left me no loopholes. Fine we have a deal Biscuit." Dorian said before dumping the remaining whiskey off the edge of the Astronomy tower and destroying the bottle.
Penny smiled and kissed Dorian, she didn't know why considering all the bad history and the fact that the only reason he was even talking to her was the bunny, the only reason he had agreed to stop drinking was so that she wouldn't drink anymore. After she backed away from Dorian she saw the look of surprise on his face.
"Well that was.." Dorian started to say but was cut off when Penny vomited from the whiskey she had drank, having never imbibed alcohol before she over did it a bit.
"It burns worse coming back up!" Penny groaned when she finally stopped puking and spat the rancid taste from her mouth.
"Oh that precious, you think that was bad, wait til you feel the hangover tomorrow." Dorian said only to receive a concerned look from Penny that she could possibly feel worse than she did at that moment.
"Come on Biscuit, lets get you back to your common room." Dorian said and walked Penny slowly down the stairs of the Astronomy tower and through the castle back towards the Hufflepuff common room entrance. Dorian saw the barrels that he knew held vinegar and would douse anyone who tapped the barrels out of order.
"Do you remember the combination?" Dorian asked curiously but Penny was pretty well out of it.
"Fuck…" Dorian said softly as he tried to remember the combination from the previous year when Penny had brought him in while he was in his animagus form.
"Hope this is it." Dorian said to himself before tapping his wand in a specific order on the barrels and closed his eyes waiting to be doused in vinegar only to hear a barrel open up and reveal the Hufflepuff common room with a couple of seventh year Hufflepuffs still awake, they looked out and saw Dorian holding Penny up and that Penny looked a bit woozy.
"What did you do you snake?" one of them asked and aimed their wand at Dorian nervously as the others grabbed Penny.
"Aside from walking her back here, not a fucking thing. I was patrolling the halls and heard a commotion, I think someone hit her with a confundus and possibly a pestilence spell, she did throw up so.." Dorian said, coming up with a plausible explanation on the fly.
"Now if you'll do me the courtesy of getting your wand out of my fucking face I have to go and ask the portraits what they saw and hunt some people down to see how they do fighting me." Dorian said and left before anyone could question him further, the fact that Penny seemed out of it was enough to keep their focus long enough for Dorian to slip away and head back to the dungeons without incident.
Penny woke the next day with a hangover with very little memory of the previous night, she remembered going to the astronomy tower with the bunny and the drinking more and more, she thought she saw Dorian but wasn't entirely sure, she didn't even know how she got back to the common room until she heard that Dorian had dropped her off saying she had been hit with a confundus in the halls and she had seemed rather out of it.
"So I did see him last night." Penny said quietly as she walked towards the great hall for breakfast to try to cope with the headache she was feeling as well as to get out of the brightly lit Hufflepuff common room.
Penny looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Dorian once again sitting by himself with plenty of room between him and the next closest student. She wished she could remember what happened last night, if thy talked or if he simply found her in the Astronomy tower and walked her back and covered for her so no one would know she had drank, and given that she felt horrible she doubted she would be drinking again anytime soon.
Dorian had made his way back to the Slytherin common room to find Fiona waiting for him on the couch, all the other Slytherins had gone to bed by the time he arrived back.
"What is the big idea scaring the first years to death? You know they're likely to have nightmares about you for years?!" Fiona said, not holding anything back from her tirade.
"Good, if they're afraid they won't talk to me. Now I just have to figure out how to keep you from talking to me." Dorian said and tried to go to his private room only for Fiona to stand in his way.
"Oh no, asshole we're not done yet." Fiona said angrily.
"Pull the panties out of your ass and talk then, I've had a long night." Dorian said only to receive a sharp slap across his face.
"You know what Penny said in her letters over the summer? She's depressed because she misses you. Penny Walker of all people is fucking depressed and it's your fault." Fiona said calmly.
"Failing how what is going on between me and Penny is any of your business but please, continue telling me how I'm responsible for what she said or the fact that I've grown so used to hearing shit like that, that it's easier to just stay the hell away from people. Wanna know why I want the first years and the rest of you afraid of me? For all that people don't want me around you, I don't want any of you around me." Dorian said irritably.
"Just… Next time she tries talking to you listen, hear her out." Fiona said.
"Already talked to her, she got me to agree to stop drinking so you can cross that off of the list of things that don't concern you that you stick your nose in." Dorian said before gesturing to his door, almost as if asking permission to go to bed.
"You.. She did? How?" Fiona asked curiously.
"That list of yours just keeps growing doesn't it?" Dorian asked
"Fine, go to bed, I'll just ask Penny." Fiona retorted getting out of Dorian's way.
"Good luck with that." Dorian said, shutting the door to his room before she could ask yet another question.
At breakfast Dorian saw Penny looking over at him occasionally but didn't pay any attention to it or even acknowledge her as he left the Great Hall to go to his first class until she caught up to him in the greenhouse, Slytherin and Hufflepuff were in Herbology first hour that year.
"I wanted to say thank you for getting me back to the common room and covering for me last night." Penny said softly.
"No problem." Dorian said as he pulled out his Herbology book and set it in front of himself at the workplace he had chosen.
"What did we talk about last night?" Penny asked as she couldn't remember.
"You're a lightweight, you know that?" Dorian asked more amused than anything.
"You and I came to an agreement." Dorian added.
"W-what kind of agreement?" Penny asked
"Remember how you planted the bottle of Ogden's on me to get me in trouble and get me to stop drinking? Well if you don't drink anymore, I won't drink anymore." Dorian said honestly.
"Really that's amazing!" Penny said a little louder than she meant to which caused her headache to hurt a bit.
"Drink a lot of water." Dorian said.
"Why?" Penny asked.
"Alcohol dehydrates you, lack of water in your body leads to hangovers, headache, sensitivity to light and sound. Get more water in your system Biscuit." Dorian said
Penny looked at him again, having heard her nickname for the first time that she could remember since she was under the influence of a love potion. Penny hugged Dorian tightly only for him to move his face away from hers which Penny found odd.
"What's wrong? Does my breath stink or something?" Penny asked and checked her breath quickly, suddenly self-conscious.
"No, just last night when you hugged me you kissed me." Dorian said causing Penny to blush a bit.
"B-but why would.. Do you not like me like that?" Penny asked.
"I wouldn't say that. It's just right after you kissed me you puked. Didn't think I could be such a bad kisser that I induced vomiting." Dorian said, the revelation of her drunkenly kissing Dorian only to promptly vomit afterwards made Penny blush a very deep shade of red.
"I-Well.." Penny started to say before Professor Sprout entered the greenhouse.
"Ah Penny, Dorian, could you help me with the Aconite?" Professor Sprout asked and Dorian quickly moved to help the Herbology Professor bring in the rest of the plants before Penny could stop tripping over her words to carry on their conversation. It was definitely something she was going to have to talk with Fiona about when she got a chance.
Authors note: Alright people, sorry, re-read the previous chapter and I know I can do a lot better but again that was mostly off of memory and courtesy of getting hit in the head a lot over the past few years mixed with some stuff that I plea the fifth on from my teen years my memory isn't that great but yeah. Anyway, gotten a lot of research back from scrolling through the interwebz. Hope you like the chapter.