Chapter 11
"Severus, I do believe your son is socializing with Gryffindors. Making the young Weasley blush even." McGonagall commented with a soft chuckle. "I must wonder weather or not he is truely related to the scowling potions master I know." Severus simply glared at her as if she were an irritating student before turning to look at Nikolas, who was now talking with Blaise and Milicent. (About Quidditch, he assumed, because of the strange hand gestures they were making.)
After dinner Nikolas left with the intention of going to the library. Once he got out of range from the other students, however, he was met with a nearly fumming Ronald Weasley.
"What are you playing at?" He questioned. "Some Slytherin joke? Ask her to the Halloween ball then ditch her or something?" Nikolas shook his head and forced himself not to laugh at his red-haired friend. Ron's face had turned a deep scarlet as he berated Nikolas.
"Playing at? I'm not playing anything. I truly wanted to go to the dance with Ginny. It was her or Hermione, but with the way you to look at each other I assumed she was taken. (Ron went, if possible, an even darker shade of red.)" He shrugged and offered a smile.
"....Fine. But if you do anything to her, I swear -"
"I would not finish that sentence if I were you." Drawled the nearing father. Ron scowled and nodded, turning to go to his common room after muttering something under his breath.
"I can never get a moment by myself, can I?" Nikolas quaried. "If it's not you or Dumbledore, it's Ron, Draco, or anyone for that matter who decides to question me on something."
"The price you must pay for being you I suppose. Deal with it." Snape stood beside Nikolas as they walked towards the library. "I saw you talking to the youngest Weasley, and with what I just caught of your conversation with the elder brother it would seem that it wasn't a friendly hello or anything of the sort. What did you say to her?" Severus questioned. Please don't say you asked her to the ball. Slytherin help me if he did. Those were the thoughts running through the potion master's head as he waited for the teen's reply.
"What does it matter to you? Besides - You'll find out soon enough." Nikolas said as he entered the library. As the two neared Nikolas' desired shelf Madam Pince entered in her night robes and sleepily scolded and forced them out. Nikolas groaned and mumbled a few unkind words about the woman. (The thought of Hermione yelling at him for what he had said coming to mind and making him laugh quietly.)
"You had to ask her of all people. Hundreds of girls at this school and you had to ask the youngest Weasley. You keep going at this rate and we'll be in trouble." Snape said as they left, heading to the dungeons and the Slytherin dorms.
"Why? I'm going to ruin the heartless reputation of the Snape family? To quote my dear father 'Deal with it.' "The teen replied, obvious sarcasm in his words.
"I don't care what a bunch of daft children think of my family; heartless or otherwise.I am quite sure you've noticed the blant hatred I show toward the Gryffindors. Now, I do dislike the house for reasons you already know, but I also have children of Death Eaters in this school. As my son, you're a reflection of me. The Dark Lord is already suspicious of me, I don't need you making things worse by associating on friendly terms with one of the most prominant families against him. I know full and well that I can't stop you from going with the girl to the ball, but after such I don't want you being friendly with them." Severus then turned and stepped down one of the darker halls of the dungeons leaving Nikolas behind. Nikolas shrugged the words off and made his way back to his room.
O - O - O - O
The rest of the time between then an the Halloween Ball was relativly uneventful. Nikolas spent a little time in the library with Ginny talking about costumes, and he could've sworn he saw Ron watching them from behind one of the bookcases at one point. They had finally decided on a costume after stumbling across a book on fairytales.
When the night arrived Nikolas enjoyed seeing everyone in costume. Even his father had dressed up (even if both Nikolas and Dumbledore had to argue with him until he gave in.) as the stereotypical version of Dracula with fangs, a cape, high collar, and all. Dumbledore had come as a unicorn; his robes a silvery white, golden gloves and shoes, and a phony unicorn horn charmed onto his forehead by McGonagall. There were people dressed as vampires, hags, and even a trio looking as if they were trying to immitate the weird sisters.
Nikolas and Ginny had fun in their costumes; Little Red Riding Hood & The Big Bad Wolf. Professor Lupin looked a bit uncomfortable at first because of his costume, but quickly got over it.
As the night progressed Nikolas began to find it getting slightly dull. He found himself standing by himself seeing as Ginny had left to dance with Dean. He moved as if to go talk to Blaise when he found himself standing in the pitch black. Every light in the great hall had gone out, and despite the multiple cries of 'Lumos' it still was very dark. The professors quickly began to try and usher everyone in one place, but the task was quickly forgotton as a large sound from outside caught their attention. Nikolas stumbled backwards and slid down the wall clutching his head in his hands. In his mind he could hear the shrill laughter of Lord Voldemort. His scar burned and throbed worse then it ever had before, and he found it hard to believe that it was simply because of how Voldemort was feeling. He knew there must be something else effecting him too. High pitched cries were soon acompanied by pleas of mercy that clouded his mind and drained his heart of joy.
Dementors.
The doors to the Great Hall burst open just as the professors had managed to fill it with light. Through the large doors a group Dementors glided in, two massive trolls trudged forward, and a giant came forward swinging a fierce looking club with metal spikes protruding from the top. Soon the screams in Nikolas' mind were joined by the wails of fear from the many frightened students who scrammbled away. As the frightened students ran to the back the professors, seventh years, and members of DA ran forward with their wands ready. Nikolas pushed himself up, determined to fight as well, and bid the screams or Lord Voldemort and his mother to leave as he bellowed the Patrounus Charm. The large white stag erupted from his wand and charged the Dementors. Lupin, who saw this despite the panic all around stared at Nikolas with wide eyes. Nikolas jumped, having forgotten that he could be found out due the shape of the patronous, quickly yelled at it to vanish. He turned away from Lupin and ran forward to help with the trolls and giant hoping that the professor would brush off what he had seen as a trick of the mind because of all the chaos.
Finaly, after nearly an hour and a great many injuries later the giant fell. The dementors fled first, being the easiest to rid themselves of. The trolls were taken down quickly following that, but only after wounding a good dozen or two of third and forth years as they trampled around swinging their clubs around wildly. The giant, however was harder to defeat, being smarter then a troll, much more violent with a weapon to match, and harder to curse. Its weapon and size abled it to hurt more then both of the trolls combined and then some. It had only fallen after Dumbledore and Snape charmed a table to trip it from behind, and the spiked club fell on its head.
As soon as the creatures had all been taken down the Great hall became an infermery. The professors conjured a long ro Those who weren't injured had to help clean wounds, fetch potions, or retrieve more bedding. Nikolas would have liked to have been among the ones helping, but instead found himself confined to a bed. His body racked with the pain of a large gash in his stomach. Remus walked over to him, a little blood on his cheek but no wounds to be seen, and held out his wand. With a soft spell Nikolas could feel the wound slowly begin to close.
"I fear I am no where near as skilled as Madam Pomfrey, but that will have to do all the same. She is busy. " Remus said as he sat on the side of the bed. "I saw it, you know. I saw Prongs." The comment made it obvious to Nikolas what the elder meant without giving anything away should someone else be listening to them.
"I couldn't tell you. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone." Nikolas said quietly.
"I understand..." He paused. "Well, actually, I don't. I know it's you. No one else could have set forth Prongs. You look so different though. You act different too. Not to mention Padfoot and Prongs would go insane if they knew what house you were in, it's even hard for me to take in."
"I know. My looks changed over the summer, around the time of my birthday. I have to act different now so no one catches on, but strangly enough it feels like I've never been more myself. As for Padfoot and Prongs, well...They don't know, and never will...But I suppose that's for the better, and now.. " Nikolas looked up at the ceiling for a moment and then shut his eyes, feeling very tired now. "Now I have a father...a real live father." The teen finished sleepily as he dozed off.
"We can talk later..." Lupin started, noticing how tired the boy was. Remus wanted to ask more about what Nikolas had ment by 'a father.' Instead he discarded the hope that the boy was delusional, and decided to go talk to this supposed father. "Rest now." Nikolas simply nodded and fell fast asleep. Moony stood and scanned the Great Hall quickly finding who he was searching for. He walked across the hall and pulled the other man out of the Great Hall through a door behind the staff table.
"Severus. We need to talk."
End of chapter 11!
Sorry it took so long. ; I'm on summer vacation at my aunt's house and haven't really had time to write. I hope you all liked this chapter.
Review please!!