"-and then. And then! I swoop in and do two backflips in a row before punching the bad guys in the nuts! They go down like dead weight and I do yet another backflip and land right in front of her. I tip my top hot, which stayed on my head through all of that, and cut the ropes that were keeping her in that seat. I then extend a hand and give her my best smile, and that was how I was knighted and got an OBE from the queen herself."
Lily Moon just looked at the Hufflepuff student sitting across from her with confusion etched in her features. This boy with the short black hair and the ordinary brown eyes and wondered just how he had turned out to be this crazy. Corvus Gaunt looked like a normal Hufflepuff first year, though that was where it ended. Apparently, he was a knight and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, having been made both by the Queen of Great Britain herself. Corvus Gaunt also was able to talk to snakes and knew Hogwarts like the back of his hand?
Yeah, she had either found herself in a fever dream, or the next seven years of her life were going to be very interesting.
"Now I don't want to brag or anything, but I'd think that was pretty cool for a five-year-old to do." Corvus said with a shrug.
"You don't actually believe I'd think that was true, right?" Lily said as she took a bite of her ice cream.
Corvus had showed them the kitchens and promptly asked one of the house-elves for some ice cream. The four of them had soon found themselves in front of a table with at least a dozen tubs of various kinds of ice cream as well as four spoons to each with. Tracey had dragged Daphne to the side to have a chat, though it looked like Tracey was doing most of the talking and Daphne was just watching the girl move her mouth, nodding along occasionally. Corvus had promptly taken a seat and ripped open a tub of ice cream that was labeled as cookies and cream and drove his spoon into it. Lily just decided to join him and now the two of them were simply eating ice cream and waiting for the other two girls to finish up.
"Hey, you wouldn't believe how many people are stupid enough to think that was true. Even Bob here thought I was telling the truth at first." Corvus said and waved at his snake with his spoon.
The Adder lifted its head at the mention of his name and hissed something at Corvus. The Hufflepuff simply hissed something back and Lily watched as a conversation was held in front of her with nothing but hisses. It was interesting to watch, and more than a little weird, but soon enough Bob the Adder simply stuck his tongue out at Corvus before slithering away.
"Shouldn't you keep an eye on him?" Lily asked as she watched Bob fell off the table and started to slither around the kitchens.
"Ah, he's fine." Corvus said and scooped another bit of ice cream into his mouth. "Anyway, its not like he'd go far, seeing as I keep his bed in my dorm and he's supper picky about where he sleeps."
"Speaking of dorms, how are we going to get back to them? I'm pretty sure its way past curfew now." Lily pointed out.
"Right, hold on just a second." Corvus said and reached into his robes for a second before pulling out his wand. "Tempus!"
It was indeed way past curfew, in fact Lily couldn't remember the last time she'd stayed awake this late, and she just knew she was going to regret it in the morning.
"I've just lost my appetite." Lily said as she set her spoon down. She'd just ate lots of sugar and she now only had a couple hours to sleep before she had to wake up and start a whole school day.
"Don't worry, I can get us back to the dorms using the secret passages throughout the walls." Corvus assured her as he ate another bite of ice cream.
"Stop eating! You won't be able to sleep with all that sugar in your body!" Lily grabbed the spoon out of Corvus' hand and the boy whined.
"But mom! I don't want to sleep just yet!"
"Shut up Corvus, and don't call me that." Lily tried to glare at the Hufflepuff, but simply got a smile in return.
"Ah, always gets people to stumble." Corvus grinned. "You ladies done yet? We do have to get some sleep eventually."
"How are you doing that?"
"What?"
"Come on Corvus, how are you doing that?"
"I'm not even doing anything difficult. I just thought of what I wanted the broom to do and now here I am." Corvus Gaunt said as he gestured to the broom that he was currently using to lean against.
The rest of the flying class was paying attention to him as Madame Hooch was distracted by helping Padma Patil with her broom. Corvus looked at his broom again to make sure he wasn't doing something to odd or out of place and found that nothing was out of the ordinary. It was hovering off the ground at the optimal height for him to lean against, the thing acting like a guardrail so that he could drape an arm across it and get into a relaxed standing position.
Apparently, this was a feat of magic that he hadn't realized was so shocking for a first year to achieve.
His fellow Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws all thought it was impressive and Corvus watched as several of them tried to replicate it with varying degrees of success. Some brooms made it off the ground but just shot into the caller's hand, while others hovered in one spot with a shaky and not at all stable position, not optimal for leaning against at all.
"No wonder he's on the quidditch team, that's some impressive broom work right there." Terry Boot said.
"Right on Terry." Corvus agreed with a two fingered salute.
"I still don't understand how you're doing that." Susan Bones said as she struggled with her broom. The rest of the Flying Class had ground to a halt as Padma was really struggling and this impromptu lesson had started up as a result. They were starting to huddle around him as well and Corvus found it more than a little amusing.
"Alright guys, gather around, let old Corvus teach you some things." Corvus said as he grabbed his broom and brought it in front of him. Everyone leaned in and watched as he showed them how to make it hover behind him in a way so that they could lean against it. The whole process was quite simple in the end and after showing how it was similar to calling the broom up some of his fellow first years got it done.
Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, it was Daphne Greengrass who got it first. She called her broom up and it stopped right at the perfect height so that she could lean against it, the broom not moving at all as she put her weight on it, and Corvus gave her a thumbs up and a smile when he saw it. Anthony Goldstein was the next to get it and although it was a little shaky at first, it soon evened out and remained stable in the air.
Corvus made his way through the group and gave hints and tips to those who were struggling with their brooms and soon enough he had everyone leaning against them. He was impressed with himself that he got the entire class to basically learn something that might have been related to flying. Flora and Hestia had stacked their brooms in a way that made it into a sort of chair, with one broom acting as the seat and another acting as the backboard. They were both sitting on its side by side, and it looked kind of cool.
That gave Corvus an idea.
He quickly looked back at his own broom for a second and got a grin on his face.
His school robes were quickly taken off and his wand was pulled form his pocket. Some swishes and flicks later and his plain school robes were now transfigured into a chair like those found in the classrooms. He grabbed his broom and willed it to hover in the air and then lifted the chair itself onto and on top of the stationary broom. A liberal number of sticking charms later had the chair firmly stuck in place and now it resembled some abomination of chair and broom.
"Behold! The Chair-Broom!" Corvus proclaimed as he grabbed hold of his new creation.
Hastily put together as it was, it looked stable enough to use, and he was more than a little curious as to how it would work. That also got him wondering if he could fit more than a single chair onto a broom. Hells, maybe he could get away with sticking a whole sofa onto it. Then his mind started to conjure up images of two quidditch teams flying around with sofas stuck to their brooms and the chaos that would follow from that.
Corvus quickly mounted the Chair-Broom as his classmates watched with some amusement and interest. It wasn't as stable at first, but after adjusting his balance some, he got it down. It was definitely more comfortable to sit on compared to the actual broom. An actual seat would always be superior to that thin rod they had to cling to. Now all he had to test was if this thing actually flew like a broom did, and he definitely noted that he'd have to make a lot of improvements to this if he wanted it to be as aerodynamic as an actual broom was. Strapping a whole chair to the thing made it a little cumbersome.
Nevertheless, Corvus was going to test this thing, and he flashed a smile to his classmates as he held both sides of the chair's seat.
"Wish me luck guys!" Corvus said and then he acted as if this was a regular broom and took off.
To say that it was a different experience was an understatement. Flying normally with only a broom felt like riding a motorcycle if that motorcycle could fly and do turns that no motorcycle should ever be able to do. It was sleek and fast and maneuverable to the point where it seemed that the laws of physics didn't apply. Some of the stunts that were preformed on brooms just seemed unrealistic, but they were done, and Corvus had done many of them in the past. Flying on the Chair-Broom was not like that, however.
The damn thing wasn't so much like a motorcycle as it was a Ford F-150 that could fly. Not as maneuverable and definitely not as stable, but damn did it feel a lot more comfortable. He didn't so much have to lean forward as he leaned against the backboard of the chair and struggle to maintain upright with all the g-forces he would pull when trying to do the more audacious maneuvers. It was an odd way to fly and definitely not the same as normal brooms, but the Chair-Broom did maintain flight and didn't spontaneously combust, so Corvus counted it as a win.
Then Madame Hooch noticed what was going on.
"Mr. Gaunt! Get down here this instant!"
Getting the Chair-Broom to descend took a little more thinking that a normal broom did, seeing as leaning forward might cause Corvus to fall out of the chair entirely. So, it was more of a gliding motion to the ground than a dive that he would normally do. As he descended from the heavens, he received a standing applause from his fellow Hufflepuffs and some clapping from the Ravenclaws. He even noticed a small sort of grin on Daphne's face.
"Madame Hooch! I have arrived!" Corvus said as he hopped off the Chair-Broom.
"What do you think you're doing? I specifically said no broom riding while unsupervised." Madame Hooch said.
"But I wasn't riding a broom." Corvus pointed out and held out the Chair-Broom for her. "It's a Chair-Broom, completely different."
"I beg to differ Mr. Gaunt. The word broom is in the name."
"Ah, well, you gotta admit that this is cool."
"It is most certainly not, now undo whatever you did to it, and get back in line."
"You wished to see me Headmaster?"
"Ah yes, come in my boy. Lemon Drop?"
"Nah, never had the taste for it."
"Well, more for me then."
"You said you needed to speak with me sir?"
"Yes, I did. Madame Hooch has informed me of your little, stunt during flying class."
"I hope she did, its not every day I invent a new mode of transportation."
"Yes, the Chair-Broom."
"Chair-Broom Mark One actually, I'm definitely going to make some adjustments to it."
"It is an interesting use of the sticking charm."
"I could make one for you?"
"No need my boy, but do continue on with your inventing, I shall keep an eye out for anymore flying chairs."
"Right on sir!"
"Gaunt."
"Malfoy."
"What are you doing in here?" Malfoy demanded.
"Why, I'm only sitting down." Corvus replied.
"Yes, but why are you in the Slytherin Common Room?"
Corvus looked around the common room as he sat on a couch facing the fireplace. He was getting some odd looks here and there, especially from his fellow first years. The upperclassmen were giving him confused looks and then just ignoring him. The few portraits that were present in the common room didn't seem to really care about his presence either and the Bloody Baron simply nodded at him before moving on.
He didn't know if ghosts knew about his reincarnation or not.
That was something he'd need to check.
"Well, the door was open, so I walked in." Corvus explained.
"You're a Hufflepuff." Malfoy sneered. "You can't be in here."
"I did get the door open though."
"Then that means someone let slip of the password, which will be dealt with."
"You do realize that we're all first years Malfoy?" Corvus looked at Malfoy and then at Crabbe and Goyle standing side by side behind the blond-haired boy. "What could you possibly do to this so-called person who let the password slip into my lap?"
"That is none of your concern."
"I'd like to disagree."
"Just get out of our common room!"
"Make me."
Corvus probably shouldn't have been riling the boy up, but damn it was fun to do so with first year Draco Malfoy. It was just too easy to do so, and it was rather fun to see how he'd react. Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem to know what to do and simply stood behind Malfoy like two bodyguards. How Malfoy got them to be like that Corvus didn't know, but it probably had something to do with their fathers, and that was a little funny as well.
When Draco Malfoy pulled how his wand was when they were interrupted.
"Put your wand away Malfoy." A prefect snapped.
Malfoy faltered for a moment and looked confused, his eyes darting to the intruder to this conversation. Their intruder turned out to be someone that Corvus didn't recognize at all. Black hair and blue eyes were completely ordinary in that it could have been anyone from the pureblood or even half-blood families. He was at least a fifth year though with that prefect badge on his robes.
"Gaunt, here you are." The prefect handed the letter to him, and it quickly disappeared into his pants pocket.
"Thanks, uh…" Corvus was coming up with nothing for this kid's name.
"Its Vaisey. Jonathan Vaisey." Jonathan Vaisey said.
"Right, thanks for the letter, mate." Corvus said and stood up.
"Y-you're just going to let him walk out?!" Malfoy said, still holding his wand.
"I am Malfoy and remember your place." Vaisey snapped again before turning his attention back to Corvus. "Read and consider the offer. There's a lot of opportunities we could take advantage of."
"Don't worry man, I'll read it." Corvus said and gave the prefect a nod. He got one back and then he found himself being escorted out of the common room; a small audience had assembled to see him go. He heard some mutterings from Malfoy about how his father would hear about this. Corvus also spotted some of his fellow first years and gave them a wave as he left the Slytherin Common Room.
He got some waves back as he left.
"Where have you been?"
"The Slytherin Common Room."
"What?!"
"The Slytherin Common Room, where the Slytherin students live."
"I know what it is, but what were you doing in there?!"
"Talking and receiving some mail."
"What?! But why in there?"
"I don't know." Corvus shrugged. "He could have given it to me via owl, but that just seems pointless as we're both at Hogwarts and literally a couple hallways away."
"Wait, you know where the Slytherin Common Rooms are?"
"Yeah."
Ernie and Justin just looked at him with exasperated expressions for a moment. They were supposed to be studying for some test or other, but Corvus' reappearance had derailed that, and now here they were. He supposed that he could have dropped that information a little softer, but he didn't really care to do that much hand holding, so he dropped it with all the subtly of a brick.
"How'd you even find it?"
"I'm a parselmouth guys, I can talk to all the stone snakes on the walls." Corvus said.
He had taken a gamble to tell them about his parselmouth ability, but it paid off as neither of them were overly concerned, and that mostly had to do with the fact that they already knew him. That and becoming a dark lord went against his character as Corvus didn't pay attention in class and was in Hufflepuff of all places. There were no dark lords who were Hufflepuffs, and why would there be, this was the house of hugs and kisses after all.
"Right, that explains so much." Justin said in a bland tone.
"I'm glad you see it that way." Corvus gave the kid a smile.
"What was in the letter anyway?" Ernie asked.
"Oh, something about claiming my rightful place as Heir Slytherin or some such." Corvus said as he took out the letter again.
"Heir Slytherin? But you're a Gaunt." Justin said.
"The Gaunt family are descendants of Salazar Slytherin." Ernie explained to their muggleborn friend. "And since there aren't any more people that have the surname of Slytherin, the Gaunts are kind of able to take the name as their own?"
"Exactly what Vaisey said in the letter." Corvus said and handed it over.
"Vaisey?" Justin asked.
"Slytherin Prefect." Corvus said.
"Ah."
"Are you going to do it? Take the heirship I mean." Ernie asked as he looked at the letter.
"I don't know. I'll probably have to talk to my mom about it." Corvus shrugged.
"Would she do it? It would be kind of funny to have Corvus Slytherin, the Hufflepuff, at Hogwarts." Ernie said.
"You know what?" Corvus smiled. "That sounds like a great idea."