I wanted to reach 20k words before the end of this year, so I rushed to get this out.
Happy New Year!


Avior's first lesson of the year was an unfortunate lesson of Potions with the Ravenclaws. The Ravenclaw house was thankfully not filled to the brim with mudbloods, those were sorted mostly into the Hufflepuff House as it was the safest place for them to be sorted in these trying times.

Even Gryffindor held many prejudiced pureblood's who shared the same hatred for them. Ravenclaw was second only to the Slytherin house, numerous old pureblood heirs being sorted into that house as well.

The lesson had started out fine, being introduced to the Potions lab and where everything was kept, but after a while of being stuck in there, many of them had started to get bored. And a group of bored eleven-year-olds is not a great mix.

Which meant that insults were eventually traded.

No, not between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, but between the Slytherin's themselves, with the Ravenclaw's unwilling spectators.

Sullivan had been leering at Evelyn for the past fifteen minutes, staring shamelessly at her as she squirmed uncomfortably. The Ravenclaw sitting next to him, Jeremiah Bletchley if he was correct, was staring at him in revulsion. Ceci was openly glaring at him, shifting from foot to foot in unrest, ready to attack him if he came near her.

Arcadius, however, didn't see it worth waiting. He wanted to make sure that Isaac understood that Evelyn was off-limits as soon as possible. She was a Pureblood, of course she was too good for him.

" Sullivan, even if you stare at her, she isn't going to pay any attention to you. Evelyn is far too pure for the likes of you of all people, half-blood." He sneered mockingly, smiling when he saw him go red. Arcadius sneakily took a peek to see where their teacher was, snickering slightly as he saw that Professor Slughorn was within earshot.

" You think your so great, being a high and mighty Pureblood, but your nothing but the product of cousin fuckers!" Isaac shouted at Arcadius from across the classroom, Bletchley, who was next to him shuffled away to not get caught up in the impending fight. Hushed whispers were traded all around the room, some looking amused and others offended.

Arcadius was about to retort with violence when a shrill shout of anger cut across the greenhouse.

" Mr Sullivan! Twenty-five points from Slytherin, how dare you! You may be from my own house, but I will not tolerate comments such as that in my classroom or in this school!" Professor Slughorn looked livid, stomping over to grab Isaac by the ear. " You do not ever say anything like that, you disgusting boy!" He dragged him out of the room, shouting back a sharp command not to touch anything, leaving behind his class of bewildered first years.

The silence was broken by the students starting to whisper, some casting wary glances towards Arcadius, who was shaking with repressed rage.

" Arcadius, don't do anything reckless now. You can get revenge later." Avior soothed, placing his hand on his shoulder. Arcadius breathed out a calming breath, closing his eyes.

" How do you think Abraxas is going to react once he finds this out? He's going to be livid! He hates when anyone dares to speak wrong about our family." He chuckled, looking wary. " I really don't want to be the person to tell him," Arcadius whispered, opening his eyes.

The other two shuffled nervously, not knowing what to say to that. They also didn't want to be anywhere near Abraxas when he found out. He was scary when angered.

Their professor came back a while later, apologising for leaving them so abruptly. He came over to ask Arcadius if he wanted to sit out the rest of the lesson, but he declined, not wanting to look bothered any further by the comment.

" I just hope that he doesn't overreact."

They all knew that he would.


After their disastrous first lesson at Hogwarts, the first-years had another lesson, Traditions with Ravenclaw once more which had gone as expected, and then a fifteen-minute break. They decided to spend it in the common room, along with their sibling's.

When they entered, they were beckoned over by the stony-looking sixth-years, Tom Riddle standing in the middle of the group.

" Would any of you happen to know why Slytherin has lost thirty-five points in the first two lessons of the year?" Tom Riddle drawled, looming over the first-years with a neutral expression once they had reached the corner where he and his friend's sat.

" Um, Isaac Sullivan lost twenty-five points in Potions. Slughorn wasn't very impressed with his behaviour, and dragged him out by his ear." Avior chuckled nervously, side-eyeing Abraxas who was listening from his seat.

" And what did he do to warrant taking away that many points while he's in first-year? Especially by our own Head of House, who is known to be more lenient to us, particularly you younger ones." Tom's voice had become warmer once he knew that they hadn't caused the loss of points. He'd worked hard to earn all those points on the first day to give Slytherin the advantage, only to find out that someone had lost most of them within the first two hours.

" Um..." Avior looked to Arca, raising his eyebrows in encouragement.

Arcadius breathed out deeply in resignation, looking up into Riddle's eyes to show his sincerity.

" He... he called my parents-" He cut off, blushing deeply, turning his head to the side in embarrassment.

" Arcadius." His brother cut in, standing up with a serious expression on his face. " What did he call our parents?"

" He called them... C-cousin fuckers..." He whispered out hesitantly, not sure if he'd get scolded for swearing. His brother was always particular with his language, and berated him harshly if he ' swore like a common Mudbood'. The fact that he didn't blink at his words spoke volumes. Abraxas was pissed off, greatly.

" Cousin. Fuckers? Hm." Abraxas repeated, his face far too serene for it to be natural. Then, he smiled, and the younger years felt shivers run down their spines. His face contorted, eyes glinting in an insane rage. " How dare he!" Abraxas angrily whispered out, pacing back and forth, before stopping suddenly. He whipped his head around, staring directly at his little brother who looked terrified of him at that moment.

Sharply breathing in, he schooled his face into a calm one once more, not wanting one of the only people he cared about to see his vicious side. He'd do everything to keep that pure vision of himself in Arcadius' mind.

Abraxas looked to Tom with serious eyes, earning a nod in response.

Good, the little shit would pay for his comments. No matter how young he was, he'd been raised in their world, the Sullivans had been half-blood's for centuries now, always marrying Mudbloods every once in a while when the Purebloods didn't seek to marry that generation.

Everyone knew that you couldn't insult an ancient pureblood family without consequences. Even the unruliest of Half-bloods were taught this.

The common room door was opened suddenly, professor Slughorn stepping in first, followed by a red in the face Sullivan. The pair made their way to where Avior and his friends were standing, Slughorn with an unusually serious expression on his face.

" Mr Sullivan has come to apologise for his earlier comments." Slughorn hissed, glaring down at Isaac with clear disapproval.

Isaac looked far from apologetic, somehow glaring at Arcadius even though his cheeks were flushed red from embarrassment. He puffed out an annoyed breath, opening his mouth to begin speaking.

" Excuse me, professor, my brother told me what Mr Sullivan said to him about our parents earlier. I also would like an apology from him, although my brother seems uncomfortable with this confrontation. I believe it's best for me to be the one he speaks to." Abraxas cut in, slightly shoving his grateful brother behind him. Arcadius flashed his brother a relieved smile, rushing off to where he previously sat to get away from the attention.

" Go on." Slughorn prompted, Sullivan looking even more annoyed now. He cleared his throat, refusing to look into Abraxas' eyes, defiant.

" I apologise for my comments on your parents." He said in a monotone voice, flinching at the sight of Abraxas' disgusted and furious glare.

" I do not and will not accept your insincere sorries. You have embarrassed both me and my brother with your thoughtless comment, insinuation that our parents are cousins when they couldn't possibly be related. If you had bothered to brush up on familial history before coming to Hogwarts, you would have known that my father is British wizard and my mother a witch from Denmark. Making such a baseless comment with no truth whatsoever is how harmful rumours come around, and I do not wish for my family to be pulled into a false scandal." He took in a deep breath to calm himself, words growing more heated as he went on. There was no point in making such a scene in front of Slughorn. " I will, however, accept you sending my parents a letter that expresses your regrets, it's only fair that you apologise to the ones you insulted directly." He sneered at the now cowering boy, turning to his head of House. " I hope that you who overheard his comments have also given him the appropriate punishment?" He inquired, already knowing the answer. His father was a prominent member of the board, they wouldn't dare to allow the boy to go unpunished, in fear of what Cyran Malfoy could do. He could easily cut the school's funds in half and fire many teachers with a snap of his fingers if he so wanted.

" Yes, don't you worry, he'll be serving detention with me for two weeks now." Slughorn chucked, clasping his hand on Isaac's shoulder. " Now, I should be off, I need to prepare for the next lesson." With that, he turned and left through the door, leaving behind a slightly shivering Sullivan.

He obviously expected there to be some form of retaliation, scrunching into himself, waiting to be hit by a spell.

What he didn't expect was for the older Malfoy to scoff, spinning on his heel with a dismissive air, heading back to his seat.

He was surprised but didn't wait around to know if it was a trick, scampering away to his dorm where he'd wait until his next lesson. Sullivan hadn't expected for his comment to have earned such a responsive reaction.

He'd have to be careful from now on, it wouldn't do to be kicked out of Hogwarts due to the snobbiness of a few purebloods. His parents had worked so hard for him to be accepted.

Having barely enough magic to enter a magical school, let alone the prestigious school of Hogwarts, his parents had to pull a lot of strings to get him in.

The minimum acceptance for Hogwarts was an expected eventual power of 20000, which even then was below average to allow those who had little power in.

Isaac had a measly expected power of 18578, too low even for Hogwarts to accept. His brother was far more powerful and had gotten admitted quickly, but he'd had to fight his parents to not be tutored.

To be tutored was a shame on your family, practically showcasing to the wizarding world that their child was essentially a squib.

Isaac burned at the memory of his parents' ashamed faces as his magical power was told to them, their family thankfully not in the Wizengamot, so they were saved of the public shame.

Sneering, he slammed the door to his dorm room shut, thoughts turning dark.

Malfoy would pay for this.