Chapter 5 – Arrival at Hogwarts
The rest of the train ride to Hogwarts proved uneventful for Antares.
The old lady with the food trolley made an appearance, and he was forced to do his prefect rounds. But beside these two things everything went by as per usual.
It was several hours later, when the sky had darkened and the rain had begun to fall, that the Hogwarts express finally arrived at its destination. It was a good thing too because Antares was positively starving due to refusing to buy anything off of the food trolley because it consisted of nothing but junk food.
Antares hardly paid any attention to what he was doing as he manoeuvred his way off the train and towards the carriages that would take him and the other students to the gates of Hogwarts. He stopped for a moment outside of his carriage in order to pat the thestral that pulled it, grinning slightly when it playfully nipped at his fingers.
Usually he would share a carriage with his friends, but just like the train ride down he was in for another silent journey with naught but his thoughts to occupy his time.
As he listened to the soft pitter-patter of the falling rain, he couldn't help but think back to his earlier conversation with Lily.
Although he had acted upset that he had to tutor someone, in actual fact he was quiet glad that he would get to spend some alone time with the pretty redhead.
He didn't know why, but ever since he had noticed her in his fourth year (her third) he had had an inconceivable amount of affection for her. Something that not only shocked him, but also frightened him beyond belief.
He was on his way to Transfiguration one morning, his thought occupied by the amazing night he had spent with a certain lady, when he ran headfirst into a 13 year old Lily Evans. He remembered looking up to make a snide remark at the foolish person who had dared get in his way. Yet when he saw who it was he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her and his voice seem to be die in his throat.
It wasn't that she was breathtakingly beautiful, because she was. He had seen plenty of women as beautiful as Lily, yet the difference was that they didn't have the same effect that she was having on him. Nor was it how smart, generous and kind-hearted she was. It was that she possessed a quality that he couldn't quiet put his finger on.
Whatever it was, it made him feel content and happy inside, as if all his worries and feelings were inferior to her. It was a feeling that had never been replicated when in the presence of someone else.
Yet although he had loved this new and wonderful feeling, a feeling that let him simply relax and forget about his worries for once in his life, he had no choice but to bury it within the deep recesses of his mind, implementing the rare art of Occlumency in order to do so.
It wasn't that the feeling wasn't a welcome one, because it was, it was more to do with the person who was causing the feelings to begin with.
The fact that a muggleborn – he refused to call Lily a Mudblood – was the object of his desires wasn't something to be proud about. He was a pureblood from an old and prestigious family, and she was a muggleborn. Whether he liked it or not, there was nothing in the future for him and Lily.
So instead of dwelling on what could never be, he had decided to lock his feelings away. As the age old proverb said; it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. And that was exactly what him and Lily being together was, nothing more and nothing less than a dream that could never come to pass.
His carriage came to a stop not ten minutes later. The rain had picked up and was now hammering down upon the ground. 'Thank Merlin for protection charms' thought Antares as he excited his carriage and made his way across the Hogwarts grounds with his classmates.
The castle loomed mightily above them as the students made their way across the courtyard and into the entrance hall, the ancient wooden doors closing magically behind them.
The castle loomed over him as Antares followed the rest of his classmates across the courtyard and into the entrance hall, the ancient wooden doors closing magically behind them when the last student had crossed the threshold.
The entrance hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a vast. The floor was made black and white marble and the walls were adorned with various tapestries. Portraits of important witches and wizards also covered the walls, their aged faces basically poking out of their frames in order to get a better look at the returning student.
Antares ignored the portraits as he and the rest of the student body were lead into the great hall, the students splitting into their respective houses as they passed through the door.
The Great Hall was aptly named. A thousand floating candles filled the room, reflecting brightly off of the golden platters that littered the tables below. Platters that would soon be filled with foods of various types.
As Antares was at the very back of the line of students, he found that his friends had already been seated by the time that he had entered the hall. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone, but he really was glad to see them.
As he made his way over to the Slytherin table, one of his best friends caught sight of him and gestured for Antares to join them.
"We were beginning to think that you weren't going to show" said the teen who had called him over, a good looking guy with curly brown hair and lightly tanned skin.
"Nott" replied Antares in response, nodding to the youth before shaking his hand.
"Avery. Flint." said Antares to the other two men seated at the table, grasping both of their hands in a firm handshake.
"Black" they nodded back almost in unison.
Turning around, Antares bowed to the last members of their ground, two breathtakingly beautiful women who were both smiling at him with their beautifully white straight teeth.
"Lady Parkinson. Lady Wilkes."
"Scion Black" they replied, bobbing their heads towards the Black Heir.
Calling his friends by their last names (and their titles) may seem strange and old fashioned to some, yet there was a good reason for the formality. Seeing as they were in public, and they all belonged to respectable pureblood families, it was up to them to present themselves with decorum and propriety. As such whenever they were introduced to fellow member of the elite, it was custom to introduce oneself using the persons last name or title.
Antares gave each of them a smile before taking a seat between the two of them.
To his right sat the black-haired beauty by the name of Sophia Wilkes. She had a lithe figure, wavy black hair that went to her shoulders, creamy white skin and beautiful brown eyes. Besides Nott, Sophia was perhaps his closest friend, having been so since he was very young. Like himself Sophia was also studious and intellectually gifted, and was (along with himself) one of the top students in the entire school.
To his left sat the enigmatic beauty that was Caroline Parkinson.
Like Sophia, Caroline was also strikingly beautiful. With black hair, blue eyes and a generous bust, the Parkinson heir had no problem in the dating department. Caroline's family was nearly as old as his own, belonging to the prestigious and exclusive organization that was the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
Across from Sophia and Caroline sat Jasper Avery and Tristan Flint. Jasper and Tristan where the complete opposite of each other despite being closer than brothers. Tristan had blonde hair, an attractive face and a large muscular frame. Jasper on the other hand had black hair, an average (but no unattractive) face a stick-thin body. Tristan was outgoing, confident and the brawn of their group, whereas Jasper was shy, quiet and intelligent. Ever since he had met them the two had been inseparable. Where one was the other wasn't far behind.
And lastly, sitting across from him was none other than Xavier Nott.
Xavier Nott had been his best friend since he was 6 years old. Their families' ran in the same social circles so whenever there was a social gathering the children were all forced to play together. Such occasions were the opportune time to make future alliances, at least that's what Antares had been told by his father. It was at one of these social gathering that he had first met Xavier Nott, and them being very similar they had quickly became very good friends.
To Say that Xavier and he were similar would be an understatement. Besides from the both of them being exceedingly handsome (he was completely secure in his sexuality that he had no problem calling his fellow man handsome), they were both smart, magically powerful, rich and revolutionists in the making. Xavier was the person that he confided in when he needed help with things of a sensitive nature. Xavier shared his opinion on the way things were meant to be, and would be his second-in-command when his future plans came into fruition. But Xavier was more than just a sounding board and future lieutenant. Xavier was his brother in all but blood.
"How was your summer Antares?" asked Caroline. "I had just finished telling the guys about my families' trip to Versailles before you joined us."
"Swimming, Studying, Family gatherings. A relatively quiet summer, all things considering" shrugged Antares nonchalantly, not mentioning anything about Helena Greengrass.
"How about you guys" asked Antares, glancing around the table at his friends. "What did you lot get up to whilst I was away."
"Well my family went to Spain for 2 months. The beaches there are absolutely fabulous" said Sophia.
"Milan" said Nott, not needing to deliberate further since they all knew Xavier had family in Italy.
"Avery? Flint?" asked Antares, looking towards the remaining members of the group.
"Better than Jasper's at least" said Tristan quietly, looking towards his friend.
Xavier, Sophia, Antares and Caroline looked toward Jasper with concern.
"Jasper?" asked Caroline quietly, grasping his from across the table.
Jasper withdrew his hand from hers and looking down at his empty plate, refusing to look at any of them.
"What is it Jasper?" asked Xavier. "You know you can tell ..."
But Xavier was interrupted by the clinking of metal upon metal. The entire hall turned their attention to the professors table, where the Deputy Headmistress was standing up with a goblet in one hand and a spoon in the other. It appeared as if they had been so wrapped up in catching up with each other that they had missed the sorting feast entirely.
"May I have your attention please" said McGonagall. "The Headmaster would like to say a few words".
Dumbledore got to his feet, his dark maroon robes with green stars clashing horribly with his long grey beard and sparkling blue eyes.
"To our new students, Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and to returning students, welcome back. I'm sure you're all just as famished as I am, so without further ado. Dig In!"
With a wave of his arms the once empty tables filled with an assortment of delicious food, the first years mouths dropping and their eyes nearly popping out of their head as they watched the food magically appear.
Antares piled chicken, salad and vegetables onto his plate, completely avoiding the calorie heavy food such as cheese, potato and bread.
The feast progressed in similar fashion to years past, with Antares and his friends catching up and making small-talk on the subjects of schoolwork, the local gossip and upcoming parties and gatherings for the upcoming year. What was different than previous years however was the fact that Tristan refused to speak to any of them about his problem and instead sat playing with his food for the entire night.
After the dessert dishes had been cleared away, the aged Headmaster once again stood up from his seat.
"Settle down everyone, settle down" he said to his students, the room becoming instantaneously quiet.
"I have few start of term notices to inform you of before you all trod off to bed. Firstly, to our new students, the Forbidden Forest is aptly named and is forbidden to all students. Secondly, our previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was bitten by a werewolf, and as such is unable to return. We are however, fortunate enough to have found a replacement for Professor Braddock, please give a warm welcome to your new Defence against the Dark Arts Professor, Professor Nathaniel Graves."
As Dumbledore said his name, the newest addition to the Hogwarts staff stood up and gave the students a wave. Professor Graves was a mild-aged man with short brown hair and an oddly crooked nose, not unlike that of the Headmasters. He wasn't very tall, standing at about 5ft 5 and wore expensive looking dress robes of navy blue. The students clapped politely as their new DADA teacher stood forward, no sense of shock or wonder on their faces at the misfortune of their last professor, it was common knowledge that a curse was placed on the position.
"And lastly" continued Dumbledore when the room was once again silent "Anyone wishing to try out for their house Quidditch team should attend their team try-outs in the second week of the semester, please note that trying out for your house Quidditch team is only open to second year's and above. Now I don't doubt that you are all just dying to get back to your common rooms and relax, so off to bed with you, chop chop."
And with that the room once again broke into loud commotion as the students stood up from their table and made their way towards the common room.
"So, what do you guys make of this new Professor" asked Antares of his friend as they got up from their seats and made their towards the entrance hall.
"Well the Graves are a Pureblood family, but apart from that I don't know anything about him" said Caroline.
"All I know is that he better be competent, the last thing we need is another Defence Against the Dark Arts professor who has no idea what they're doing" said Xavier, to which the rest of them agreed.
"And what if he is incompetent" asked Tristan with raised eyebrows.
"Well then we'll just have to make sure that Professor Graves goes on a little holiday, won't we?" said Antares, to which the rest of them grinned mischievously at one another.
'Let's just hope for your sake Professor that you do a better job than your predecessors' thought Antares as he followed his friends past the portrait of their house namesake and into the common room beyond.