Chapter Four: Kai, William and Kenneth
Kai stood by Professor Snape's desk, radiating sensuality, as the rest of the students filed out of the drafty classroom. Student and teacher matched gazes while waiting for the last of the students to leave; Snape looking stern and annoyed, Kai's heavy-lidded look lending an air of arrogance to his smooth features, delicate as a woman's. Snape marveled again at his newest, and most troublesome, student. He was in his third year at Hogwarts, even though he was taller and more mature than any of his fellows; he fit in more with the seventh-years. Also, records showed that he had been attending Hogwarts since he was eleven, having come in with the batch of first-years that included Harry Potter—but neither Snape nor any of the other teachers remembered having seen him before.
And then there was the matter of his attitude.
"You wanted to speak with me?" Kai asked, the tone in his sultry voice making it obvious that he was, for now, only obeying Snape's orders on a whim.
Snape drew himself up, trying to remind himself that he was in power here, no matter how this odd boy's manner intimidated him. "I saw you sabotage Longbottom's project," He said severely. "I am going to have to issue detention and remove points from the Gryffindor dorm. Your disorderly conduct disappoints me, Mister DuLamort." Snape suppressed a shudder at the mention of the boy's unusual family name—one that he knew to mean 'of the dead'.
Kai smiled at him. "I'm crushed," He said grandly, his smile widening. "Nothing hurts me more than to see the idiots I live with lose at this silly game of yours."
"If that doesn't affect you, I'm sure a week of detention will," Snape ground his teeth silently. "If you keep on like this, you may be expelled."
Flicking his long, green-black hair over his shoulder, Kai gave a snort of amusement. "I seriously doubt it. I would think—" He leaned on Snape's desk, licking his lips in a way that stirred heat in the Professor's body. "—that you should be more afraid of losing your job, Severus."
"It is inappropriate to address me so informally, Mister DuLamort," Snape said, bristling.
Kai huffed and sat on Snape's desk. "But it sounds so much nicer," He ran his tongue over his teeth, as if savoring the taste of the name. "Severusssss." His lips seemed to curve around the sound. Snape swallowed uncomfortably, his voice failing him. "Besides, you've nothing to fear from me. I'm just a student—just a third-year. I'm so young…" Kai flung his head back, heaving an exaggerated sigh. "So what if I call you by your first name? If no one knows…"
Snape stiffened. "I'm—sending you to Dumbledore," He said shakily. "This has gotten out of hand."
"Is it because you're older than me?" Kai asked suddenly. "What about Professors Wolf and McGonagall? They're decades apart, and—"
"That's not it—I mean—" Snape stood up. "Get off of the desk; we're going to Dumbledore."
Kai pretended to pout. "I don't like him. He smells like burnt pudding."
"I'm going to have you expelled!" Snape fairly shouted, backing towards the door. Kai slid off of the desk and advanced on him, his green eyes glowing.
"Are you? And then what? The wards around this school aren't enough to keep me out, Severus. I can—and will—come after you." He smirked as Snape pulled out his wand and pointed it at him with a shaking hand. "Oh, you're going to get me with one of your boogedy-boogedy spells. Well, go ahead—try it."
Snape opened his mouth, trying to form the words for a spell, but nothing came out. He had backed into the door and was staring down at Kai as he approached, eyes wide. He tried again to cast a spell, again to no avail. "What made you think you could possibly defend yourself against me?" Kai laughed. "I, who has lain with the likes of Lord Voldemort? I who have wreaked havoc across Europe for centuries?" He laughed again, his insane cackle trailing off into a hiss, then opened his mouth wide and grabbed Snape by the throat. Severussssss…
**
Draco hadn't seen Nuncio since he'd forbidden him from returning to Hogwarts. He was a little lonely, but the promise of going to school again was enough to occupy him until Sunday night, when he packed his trunk and laid out his uniform in anticipation of driving to the school the next morning. He was just climbing into bed when he heard his curtains flapping in the breeze from his open window.
"That's strange," Draco mused aloud as he went to shut the window. When he turned around, Nuncio was glaring at him disapprovingly from next to his bed.
"What did I tell you about going back to the school?"
"What did I tell you about sneaking up on me and scaring me half out of my skin?!" Draco huffed indignantly. "And I'm going—tomorrow morning—no matter what you say."
Nuncio shook his head and sighed heavily. "I really didn't want to have to resort to this, but…" He reached into his long black cloak, and Draco stiffened, then relaxed as Nuncio pulled out a blank sheet of parchment and a quill made of polished ebony. "I'm going to have to assign you bodyguards."
"What!" Draco laughed.
Nuncio pursed his lips as he went to Draco's desk to write. "It isn't a laughing matter. You're lucky that I'm letting you go at all. I was thinking about what you said, though—about your education—and decided it was best if you did return to the school, but only under strict supervision. I would stick out like a sore thumb, but I know of a pair of fellows who would fit right in."
Draco had gone over to stand beside Nuncio and look over his shoulder as he wrote; he was shocked to find that the entire note was written in the same type of foreign characters that Kiyoshi had once shown him embroidered on the front of his tunic. "Who are they?" He asked, trying without success to decipher the odd symbols.
"I can't tell you here," Nuncio replied briskly, folding the parchment up and sealing it with a sticker of a cartoon fairy. "But they'll be at school tomorrow waiting for you. You'll know them from my sign: the Magpie. They'll both be wearing it." He moved to the window and threw it open. His own magpie—which Draco had seen deliver letters to Kiyoshi the previous year—fluttered in and landed on Nuncio's outstretched hand. He stroked it affectionately, then tied the message to one of its legs and pitched it rather violently back out the window.
"Shouldn't you be more gentle with your bird?" Draco asked.
Nuncio shut the window. "Not if I'm in a hurry. He's a bit chatty. Likes to dawdle."
Draco nodded, utterly confused, as Nuncio turned from the window once more. The man favored him with a warm smile. "I think you'll be safe with those fellows I contacted," he said. "And I'll always be close by. Now, into bed with you. You've got a busy day ahead." He patted Draco's hair in a fatherly sort of way, then shut himself into the closet.
Lying in bed that night, Draco decided that Nuncio was the craziest person he'd ever met.
**
The trip to Hogwarts was long, but for the most part uneventful. Draco hadn't seen Nuncio that morning and was a little disappointed, but every so often he would look out the window of their car and glimpse his magpie gliding along beside them.
Once at the school, the first place Draco and his mother went was Dumbledore's office. The Headmaster greeted them warmly and welcomed Draco back to the school, but his twinkling eyes were concerned. He suggested that Draco have a day of rest before he returned to his classes, to 'get reacquainted with the school'." He then handed Draco his class schedule with a broad smile and suggested he go to the Slytherin dorm, where his things were already waiting for him.
Narcissa left him at the entrance to the dorm, but not before giving him a hundred instructions to remember his handkerchief and his tissues and to not overexert himself and to remember to send her an Owl once and a while and showering him with kisses. Draco was greatful that all the other students were currently in their classes, so no one witnessed this display of maternal affection.
His mother left at last, and Draco climbed the stairs up to his room. On his way down the hall, he saw the door to the room that had once been Kiyoshi's, which had been nailed shut. His heart gave a painful jerk, and Draco hurried on, eyes stinging with unshed tears.
He was in his room, unpacking, when a bright, chipper voice called: "Draco Malfoy?"
Draco jerked with surprise and turned around. Standing in the doorway were two of the oddest people he'd ever seen: one of them was lanky and skinny, with very fine, shaggy white hair and wide crimson eyes. He was smiling very widely at Draco. The other was tall and mean-looking, and though he wasn't muscular like Crabbe or Goyle, he had a powerful look to him. He had waist-length green-black hair that was bound up into a braid that he had slung over one shoulder like a scarf. He was wearing a Gryffindor patch.
"Who are you?" Draco demanded, reaching for his wand. "And why aren't you in your classes?"
"Got no classes just now," the white-haired one chirruped again. "We heard about you coming back, and thought we'd come to see you. My name's Ka—" he coughed as his companion elbowed him in the ribs. "Kenneth," he finished with a grin.
"William," the boy with the braid grunted.
Draco's eyes narrowed. "I've never seen you before. Are you first-years? And you—" he pointed his wand at William. "You're a Gryffindor! What are you doing here?"
William muttered something that sounded like "Stupid Sorting Hat," while Kenneth stepped further into the room, still radiating cheerfulness.
"William and I are brothers," he explained. "We stick together. No matter what!"
"Why don't I believe you?" Draco asked suspiciously.
Kenneth didn't say anything, but put his hand out in front of him, fingers closed into a fist. One by one, he unfolded his fingers. Tattooed on his palm was a stylized magpie. Draco's eyes widened, and he automatically looked at William, who shifted ever so slightly. Shining underneath his scarf was a bronze medallion in the shape of a magpie.
"Oh," was all Draco could say as he put away his wand.
"Lunch is in a few minutes," Kenneth said as if nothing had happened. "Let's go get a seat, yeah?"
"Yeah," Draco nodded uncertainly, then thought of something. He looked at William. "He won't be able to sit at the Slytherin table, you know."
Kenneth cast a glance over his shoulder at William. "He'll still be able to see you from where he sits," he reassured Draco. "It'll still be safe."
Draco followed them out of the dorm. "When did you two get here?" He asked.
Kenneth giggled. "When? Silly! We're third-years, we've been here since we were eleven."
Looking from the giggling, girlish Kenneth to the tall, mean William, Draco thought privately that anyone who seriously believed these two were only thirteen should have his head examined.