It was early in the morning. The sun had yet to rise, and the world
took on a muted pink-and-grey tinge. Frost formed overnight crunched
beneath the expensive leather boots of the blonde man as he walked
determinedly through the imposing iron gates of Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Striding towards the brick entrance he met with
several other members of the board of governors. Nodding curtly at his
fellows the blonde man continued into the building, meeting the Headmaster
just inside the Hall.
Not many students knew that the board met each morning before the start of every term. It wasn't particularly relevant, the meeting, but it was traditional, and many said it dated back to the times when the founders all convened and went over last minute plans at the start of term. For whatever reason the tradition was in place, it was in place firmly, and it was expected that each member of the Hogwarts teaching staff and each member of the board of governors meet for a ridiculously early breakfast and awkward, stilted, small talk each year.
The blonde man just as soon wished it wouldn't and didn't, but it wasn't solely up to him, and he didn't want to explain why he was so very against coming, as most thought it was a chore, but not such a terrible one. Usually he made some excuse not to come and no one really minded, except for those who did, and they didn't matter. This year was his son's first year, however, and he felt it was his duty to make an appearance.
Sitting upright and tense in an ornate chair, the blonde man gritted his teeth and made one-word answers to all inquiries after his family and home.
After what seemed like a decade but was only two hours the blonde man got out of his chair, absentmindedly smoothing his robes, out of habit rather than necessity, and strode once more out of the gates. Only until he had reached his own hearth did he allow the tight-lipped smile to fall from his features.
Marching quickly to his study and locking the door behind him he reached for the decanter on the desk, fumbling slightly, and poured some of the rich warm liquid into a delicately spun glass before knocking it back desperately. Visiting his old school always had such an effect on him, and his family knew enough to steer clear of his study until he emerged.
Unfortunately the brandy was too little to late to keep him from his memories, and, first tugging at the corners of his mind like forgotten lullabies, they finally swept him up on a melody of painful remembrance.
***
".And so the best time to hunt the Vampire would have to be during sunlight hours."
The clear decisive voice of the redhead petered off and the boy with the square rimmed spectacles sighed quietly in relief. It was all true, what she had said, but also very, very boring when you knew it already.
"Very good Miss Evans." The teacher, a young, ill-kemp and hassled looking man, said from the front of the room as he shuffled through the mess of papers on his desk. "Would anyone.err--hang on. Ah, yes." He pulled a rumpled sheet from near the bottom of one of the many stacks and then looked up, beaming, at the rest of the class. "Would anyone like to elaborate?"
A pale arm rose in the air, and the teacher, looking flustered, pointed to its owner. "Yes, Mr., ah, Malfoy?" The pale boy nodded solemnly in acknowledgement before standing up and addressing the class.
"While Evans made some excellent points." here he paused and sneered slightly, as if he very much doubted she had, but was being polite. "I'd like to make a few of my own."
The red-head next to the boy with the glasses made an angry huffing sound, and the boy patted her arm absentmindedly and affectionately, never taking his eyes off the blonde.
And the blonde was well worth watching. He was spouting utter rubbish, of course, not a single fact he stated was true, and most didn't even have to do with the subject at hand, but the classroom was captivated. Many students were taking notes, looking up at him occasionally with admiration in their eyes. The teacher seemed to be second-guessing his knowledge, looking first at the rumpled sheet in his hand and then at the boy addressing his class, with a slight frown. Even the red-headed girl next to him was beginning to doubt her careful research, looking between the pale boy and the notes on her desk made out in her clean neat writing.
Only the boy with the spectacles realized what the blonde was doing; and only he knew that if you went to any library with a list of the book "sources" that the information the blonde was basing his theories on you would come up empty handed, just as only he understood why the blonde boy did what he did.
He came alive while he was lying. His eyes lit up and the usual cold grey became misted, his white, soft hands became animated and fluttered with a language all their own, and his tales, the boy with the glasses could tell, were all made up on the spot, seamless and perfect upon first creation like nothing else he knew of. There was flawlessness to the entire procedure that kept him glued in his seat, silent and watchful and the blonde boy spun out his outrageous ideas to his captive audience.
".And so that is why it is in fact best to hunt a Vampire during the autumn at garlic harvest season." Abruptly the spell was broken and the whole class became alive once again; some clapped for the pale boy, others, like Lily, continued to scribble down last minute notes. The teacher wrote down the reading on the board just in time as the bell rang, and the boy with the spectacles reached behind him to help his friend Remus in trying to get the only other person who had remained unmoved by the pale boys speech, one Sirius Black, to wake up.
***
The blonde boy slid from his seat and headed to his common room, tying his curtain of pale hair at his neck with a black satin cord form his mother on the way. Since his father had died his mother had urged him to grow it long, and for her he had, though it made him look prettier than most of the girls in his house.
Reaching his common room the pale boy stated his password and walked inside, only to find himself entering pandemonium. Students were running about shouting completely nonsensical statements. Grabbing one of the said students by the back of the shirt the pale boy asked calmly and politely what the matter was.
"Well, you see Lu-." The blonde boy's lip curled and the terrified lowerclassmen quickly amended- "Mr. Malfoy, sir. Miss Black was talking to Miss Parkinson when BAM! The coffee table just upends on her, like someone pushed it. Like.like a ghost did it." The boy trailed off at the look on his senior's face.
Speaking in a low hiss, anger palpable in his voice the pale boy addressed the milling masses in the common room. "Did it ever occur to any of you idiots that someone might have levitated the table so it fell onto Miss Black?"
The entire common room froze.
"But, but.who would do such a thing?" Someone near the back of the room asked. The entire house knew that Miss Narcissa Black was only slightly less frightful than Mr. Lucius Malfoy when angered. It was what made them such an excellent pair.
"Who indeed." The blonde boy said, adopting a slightly more normal tone and grabbing some random lower years sweater to help dry the soaked, forgotten and fuming Narcissa. "It may have well just upended. If someone did do it-" here the blonde boy turned from attending to Narcissa and fixed his schoolmates with a menacing glare -"Then I intend to find out who and make sure they think more carefully next time. And for god's sake there is no such thing as the invisible ghost of Salazar Slytherin, I made him up on Halloween. Even if his ghost did haunt the school we would be able to see him, and do you really think he would bother us? He would be after the Gyffindor's."
The whole room had the decency to look embarrassed and continued with what they had been doing pre-chaos.
Turning to the large boys that flanked him on either side the blonde boy snapped "And you two, if Miss Black in ever left unattended to in such a manner again there will be hell to pay." The two large boys nodded stupidly and the blonde girl gave the pale boy a smile full of sweet, false, gratitude.
"Yes," said a sarcastic voice and a dark, smirking form appeared, "Is no- one concerned for our prima donna?"
Severus Snape moved from the shadows of an alcove nearby.
"Severus," the pale boy greeted, brow furrowing "Just what are you doing here?"
"Oh," the thin boy replied pushing oily black hair behind one ear, and hefting a large book with one hand. "Just catching up on some reading." He smirked and wandered lazily out of the common room. Too late to call him back, the pale boy realized his mistake as he sensed the girl next to him go stiff with fury.
"He! It was him, I know it was him! He upended the table at me Lucius and you didn't even do anything but greet him, it was to dark to read in there and you know it, you always notice those sorts of things you."
"Narcissa, dear."
"Don't you "Narcissa" me, Lucius Theodoric Malfoy. I'm leaving, and I don't want to see you until much, much later. Don't bother coming by tonight, I'm in no mood to let you copy my homework you ungrateful little.Arrg!" And with a swish of expensive black fabric the blonde girl was gone.
"Well," said the pale blonde boy. "That did not go as planned."
Not many students knew that the board met each morning before the start of every term. It wasn't particularly relevant, the meeting, but it was traditional, and many said it dated back to the times when the founders all convened and went over last minute plans at the start of term. For whatever reason the tradition was in place, it was in place firmly, and it was expected that each member of the Hogwarts teaching staff and each member of the board of governors meet for a ridiculously early breakfast and awkward, stilted, small talk each year.
The blonde man just as soon wished it wouldn't and didn't, but it wasn't solely up to him, and he didn't want to explain why he was so very against coming, as most thought it was a chore, but not such a terrible one. Usually he made some excuse not to come and no one really minded, except for those who did, and they didn't matter. This year was his son's first year, however, and he felt it was his duty to make an appearance.
Sitting upright and tense in an ornate chair, the blonde man gritted his teeth and made one-word answers to all inquiries after his family and home.
After what seemed like a decade but was only two hours the blonde man got out of his chair, absentmindedly smoothing his robes, out of habit rather than necessity, and strode once more out of the gates. Only until he had reached his own hearth did he allow the tight-lipped smile to fall from his features.
Marching quickly to his study and locking the door behind him he reached for the decanter on the desk, fumbling slightly, and poured some of the rich warm liquid into a delicately spun glass before knocking it back desperately. Visiting his old school always had such an effect on him, and his family knew enough to steer clear of his study until he emerged.
Unfortunately the brandy was too little to late to keep him from his memories, and, first tugging at the corners of his mind like forgotten lullabies, they finally swept him up on a melody of painful remembrance.
***
".And so the best time to hunt the Vampire would have to be during sunlight hours."
The clear decisive voice of the redhead petered off and the boy with the square rimmed spectacles sighed quietly in relief. It was all true, what she had said, but also very, very boring when you knew it already.
"Very good Miss Evans." The teacher, a young, ill-kemp and hassled looking man, said from the front of the room as he shuffled through the mess of papers on his desk. "Would anyone.err--hang on. Ah, yes." He pulled a rumpled sheet from near the bottom of one of the many stacks and then looked up, beaming, at the rest of the class. "Would anyone like to elaborate?"
A pale arm rose in the air, and the teacher, looking flustered, pointed to its owner. "Yes, Mr., ah, Malfoy?" The pale boy nodded solemnly in acknowledgement before standing up and addressing the class.
"While Evans made some excellent points." here he paused and sneered slightly, as if he very much doubted she had, but was being polite. "I'd like to make a few of my own."
The red-head next to the boy with the glasses made an angry huffing sound, and the boy patted her arm absentmindedly and affectionately, never taking his eyes off the blonde.
And the blonde was well worth watching. He was spouting utter rubbish, of course, not a single fact he stated was true, and most didn't even have to do with the subject at hand, but the classroom was captivated. Many students were taking notes, looking up at him occasionally with admiration in their eyes. The teacher seemed to be second-guessing his knowledge, looking first at the rumpled sheet in his hand and then at the boy addressing his class, with a slight frown. Even the red-headed girl next to him was beginning to doubt her careful research, looking between the pale boy and the notes on her desk made out in her clean neat writing.
Only the boy with the spectacles realized what the blonde was doing; and only he knew that if you went to any library with a list of the book "sources" that the information the blonde was basing his theories on you would come up empty handed, just as only he understood why the blonde boy did what he did.
He came alive while he was lying. His eyes lit up and the usual cold grey became misted, his white, soft hands became animated and fluttered with a language all their own, and his tales, the boy with the glasses could tell, were all made up on the spot, seamless and perfect upon first creation like nothing else he knew of. There was flawlessness to the entire procedure that kept him glued in his seat, silent and watchful and the blonde boy spun out his outrageous ideas to his captive audience.
".And so that is why it is in fact best to hunt a Vampire during the autumn at garlic harvest season." Abruptly the spell was broken and the whole class became alive once again; some clapped for the pale boy, others, like Lily, continued to scribble down last minute notes. The teacher wrote down the reading on the board just in time as the bell rang, and the boy with the spectacles reached behind him to help his friend Remus in trying to get the only other person who had remained unmoved by the pale boys speech, one Sirius Black, to wake up.
***
The blonde boy slid from his seat and headed to his common room, tying his curtain of pale hair at his neck with a black satin cord form his mother on the way. Since his father had died his mother had urged him to grow it long, and for her he had, though it made him look prettier than most of the girls in his house.
Reaching his common room the pale boy stated his password and walked inside, only to find himself entering pandemonium. Students were running about shouting completely nonsensical statements. Grabbing one of the said students by the back of the shirt the pale boy asked calmly and politely what the matter was.
"Well, you see Lu-." The blonde boy's lip curled and the terrified lowerclassmen quickly amended- "Mr. Malfoy, sir. Miss Black was talking to Miss Parkinson when BAM! The coffee table just upends on her, like someone pushed it. Like.like a ghost did it." The boy trailed off at the look on his senior's face.
Speaking in a low hiss, anger palpable in his voice the pale boy addressed the milling masses in the common room. "Did it ever occur to any of you idiots that someone might have levitated the table so it fell onto Miss Black?"
The entire common room froze.
"But, but.who would do such a thing?" Someone near the back of the room asked. The entire house knew that Miss Narcissa Black was only slightly less frightful than Mr. Lucius Malfoy when angered. It was what made them such an excellent pair.
"Who indeed." The blonde boy said, adopting a slightly more normal tone and grabbing some random lower years sweater to help dry the soaked, forgotten and fuming Narcissa. "It may have well just upended. If someone did do it-" here the blonde boy turned from attending to Narcissa and fixed his schoolmates with a menacing glare -"Then I intend to find out who and make sure they think more carefully next time. And for god's sake there is no such thing as the invisible ghost of Salazar Slytherin, I made him up on Halloween. Even if his ghost did haunt the school we would be able to see him, and do you really think he would bother us? He would be after the Gyffindor's."
The whole room had the decency to look embarrassed and continued with what they had been doing pre-chaos.
Turning to the large boys that flanked him on either side the blonde boy snapped "And you two, if Miss Black in ever left unattended to in such a manner again there will be hell to pay." The two large boys nodded stupidly and the blonde girl gave the pale boy a smile full of sweet, false, gratitude.
"Yes," said a sarcastic voice and a dark, smirking form appeared, "Is no- one concerned for our prima donna?"
Severus Snape moved from the shadows of an alcove nearby.
"Severus," the pale boy greeted, brow furrowing "Just what are you doing here?"
"Oh," the thin boy replied pushing oily black hair behind one ear, and hefting a large book with one hand. "Just catching up on some reading." He smirked and wandered lazily out of the common room. Too late to call him back, the pale boy realized his mistake as he sensed the girl next to him go stiff with fury.
"He! It was him, I know it was him! He upended the table at me Lucius and you didn't even do anything but greet him, it was to dark to read in there and you know it, you always notice those sorts of things you."
"Narcissa, dear."
"Don't you "Narcissa" me, Lucius Theodoric Malfoy. I'm leaving, and I don't want to see you until much, much later. Don't bother coming by tonight, I'm in no mood to let you copy my homework you ungrateful little.Arrg!" And with a swish of expensive black fabric the blonde girl was gone.
"Well," said the pale blonde boy. "That did not go as planned."