The small group of first years were led down into the dungeons and Heri could already tell he was going to like it here. It was dark and dank and the lack of natural light made it wonderfully gloomy. His contentment only grew as they entered the common room. They were enveloped in an eerie green glow from the floating lights and windows looking out into the lake. It was finely furnished in darker colours, with silver accents and had a sprinkling of snake motifs.
When Snape entered to greet the first years, he made sure to look at each of them, but his gaze lingered on Addams and Granger. After he gave his usual speech on expected behaviour and house pride, he decided to address the elephant in the room.
"Now, you hopefully have the wherewithal to have noticed the shock caused my Miss Granger's sorting." Hermione shrunk a little at being singled out, but then immediately bounced back to stand tall. She was just going to have to deal with this, she told herself, be brave; it's not that bad… she was relieved as Snape kept talking. "I want to make this very clear: those placed into our House are done so because they have the potential to be great! Slytherins are clever and ambitious and cunning, but we are also known for our brotherhood and I expect this year to be no exception! You will accept all members of this House, regardless of personal beliefs and you will at the very least present a united front to the rest of the school! I do not want to see any student singled out or vilified. If you have a problem with a fellow Slytherin, it stays within these walls. To go around the castle acting like indignant Gryffindors is not cunning or clever and if nothing else will only increase the prejudice we in Slytherin are subjected to. That's not going to make anyone's lives any easier." He looked around at each student again to try and see which ones would be a problem. "I would like to prove wrong all those fools who caused such a scene at the ceremony" he ignored that a great deal of that had come from his own little snakes, but was satisfied to see some of them looking a little sheepish at being likened to a Gryffindor. "Do not disappoint me." And with one last lingering gaze, he turned and swept out of the room, robes billowing behind him.
Heri thought the man had style! And a curious magic that he couldn't wait to get a better look at.
Unfortunately, after the prefects had also left and the older students were starting to pile in, it became apparent that a number of children had not taken Snape's words to heart. Quite a large crowd gathered round them, but Heri was pleased to notice that many simply rolled their eyes at their peers and went about their business. Good for them. Pansy Parkinson stepped forward, apparently happy to take the lead here.
"Snape only said those things because he's a teacher, you know. He doesn't think you belong here anymore than the rest of us!" There was a collective noise of agreement. Heri just watched for now.
"Pans, I don't think now is the time…" Draco tried to gently get the girl to back off, knowing her well enough to know that she was about to get mean. It had been a long day and honestly he just wanted to get to bed. Hermione interrupted him.
"It's ok, Draco." He winced at her use of his name. He really didn't need everyone thinking he was on such friendly terms with the girl, but he said nothing. He would get more information from his father tomorrow and then he could make a more informed decision about how he would handle the situation. He already knew he would be heeding the advice to not make an enemy out of Addams, but anything beyond that was still up for debate.
"It's not ok, mudblood!" They heard a small tsk from Heri at her use of that word, and Draco turned alarmed eyes to him, but the dark haired boy did nothing. "You should go home! People like you don't belong in this school! You don't even look the part. If I didn't already know your parents were disgusting muggles, I'd have thought you were part troll." A round of laughs at the insult later, and those in the know where beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable. Nott and Greengrass were watching from the side lines with caution and curiosity.
"Resorting to the use of attacks of person or character is a basic fallacy. It implies that you already know your argument is baseless and/or lost and you are getting desperate. Well, I'm unimpressed and unaffected by your juvenile attempts. If you don't have any intelligent argument as to why I shouldn't be here, I suggest we all be getting to bed. We have classes tomorrow!" Hermione kept her head high and her voice only waivered once. Heri was grinning at how fun this was. He wanted to applaud her for maintaining dignity when he knew she would actually be very affected by all this. Draco just wanted to scream at the girl that she wasn't doing herself any favours and wouldn't be making any friends with that damn annoying tone of hers!
Pansy was starting to turn red with outrage.
"You really think I'm going to sleep in the same room as you?! I'm likely to catch something!" Heri raised an eyebrow at that. Did the girl think Hermione's 'dirty blood' was going to bleed out and attack her in her sleep? "You're going to find out exactly what we do with your sort!" She stepped forward and things looked like they might get physical.
"Daphne!" Heri suddenly called in his jovial tone – as though he wasn't standing in the middle of a room so thick with tension you could choke. "It's nice to see you again. How was your summer?" Everyone looked round to Daphne, either disconcerted at the sudden change of mood or surprised that their friend already knew Addams as she hadn't said anything.
Daphne gulped a little but responded in her perfected superior tone.
"Most enjoyable, Herido. We visited the Italian Lakes. Did you and your… family, have a nice summer." She thought she was doing very well given the circumstances.
"Good, good, it was most dreary. Say, I was wondering whether you could do me a favour. My friend here," He threw an arm around Hermione and pulled her forward, "doesn't know anyone in this house yet. Could you help her get settled? Make sure she's ok?" Daphne paled. He couldn't honestly be tasking her with the mudbloods safety! She wouldn't be able to sleep for watching the girl, not to mention making herself a target in the girl's dormitory. But she remembered the look on her father's face that morning at the beginning of summer and the talk they had had later that day, and she knew she couldn't refuse.
"Of, of course. Slytherins always take care of their own." She was hoping to make it sound like an act of house honour, but her eyes were wide with dread. This wasn't how the school year was supposed to start!
Hermione gave Heri a flat look, but was quietly grateful. Everyone else was looking at Daphne in outrage or pity.
One of the older boys stepped forward. It seemed that Herido's involvement in this dispute had opened up an opportunity for them to join in too. Heri rolled his eyes. Wednesday could teach these boys a thing or two. Hermione too soon enough, if he had anything to do with it. He was pulled from his musings when he realised he was being addressed.
"…supposed to be from a good family, but you can't just waltz in from America and tell people what to do!" The boy would have had a nasty, mean looking face even without the sneer.
"Of course not!" Heri countered as though shocked at the mere suggestion. "I need a partner to waltz!" He was sure the mean looking boy actually just growled at his response.
His apparent lack of concern about being ganged up on by the older students was aggravating the boys to no end. The leader looked like he was fighting to hold himself back from throwing a punch.
"You know," he started with a look of disappointed condescension, "a lot of people had high hopes for you, but it turns out you're just another muggle lover. You should watch your back! That goes for you too Malfoy!" Heri heard Draco groan, but continued to smile. He didn't care about the boy's words, but he did not appreciate that look, not one bit.
"What is it about Hermione that you find so threatening?" His tone had only become a little less friendly. He didn't want to spoil his fun after all. He sensed out the boys magic: fairly dark, but not very powerful for someone his age. He heard some faceless boy call out 'kill him, Flint!' Flint then. Good to know.
"As if I could be threatened by a little girl!" Flint snarled. "She just doesn't belong here!"
Heri's smiled failed and he smirked just a little.
"Oh, I assure you she does." His tone was amused now, but inside he could wait to teach this boy a lesson. "More so than you. Of that, I am certain." Flint clenched his fists and stepped forward.
"That's it, Addams! I don't know how things work in America, but here the place of mudbloods is at our feet! And I think you should join them there…" Flint was shouting now, but he stopped himself as he looked at the sly smile haunting the younger boy's face. Some part of him, he suspected the part that dealt with self-preservation, was telling him to back off, but he was so angry and this kid was infuriating.
"Do you?" Heri asked and everyone could see a gleam of excitement in his eyes that made them shiver.
Everyone but Flint; he was too worked up. Absolutely infuriating, he thought and proceeded to spit straight at Heri's face. Faster than anyone could believe, Heri's hand came up and he caught the spit, looking down at the disgusting substance for a moment, before closing his fist.
There were gasps from all around and everyone was watching to see how Addams would respond. When Herido looked up, his smirk was down-right evil. Even Flint sobered up at seeing it. But when he spoke his voice was calm, like he was discussing the weather.
"A few years back, I met the most interesting tribe in the Amazon jungle." Everyone's jaw dropped in a what-the-hell? fashion. "They'd discovered a way of using anything; hair, skin, bone, even fluids, as a channel to gain influence over a person. Are there any classes like that here?" Everyone was still too stunned to respond for a moment, but Hermione was being to look a little fearful.
"H, Heri…" She started but was interrupted by Flint, who was suddenly eager to leave.
"You're a freak, Addams!" He declared and quickly made his way to the dorms. This was taken as some kind of signal to indicate the show was over and everyone else dispersed too, feeling a little uncomfortable, but not being able to specifically place why.
Soon, only Daphne, Draco, Hermione and Blaise remained, all sporting a look of outright incredulity.
"You, you're just going to let him get away with that?!" Draco sputtered. Well, that had been anticlimactic! He for one certainly hoped that Herido wasn't going to let that go, otherwise they would all be eaten alive. To his relief, Heri actually scoffed.
"Of course not. Le genie est une longue patience"
"Genius is patience." Draco translated.
Herido suddenly lifted his arm and started hissing, to the concern of three of those present. Hermione just watched as Kounna slithered down and was handed to her.
"Kounna is going to watch over you and will attack anyone who tries to disturb your sleep." She smiled and nodded her thanks. He turned to Daphne, "You might want to mention that to your friends. Her venom is lethal after all."
The three purebloods wanted to react to the news that Addams was a Parselmouth, they really did, but a part of them knew they should have guessed – it was a dark trait after all – and a bigger part of them had had enough and just wanted to go to sleep.
"Right, well, we should get to bed." Blaise tried. Heri hmmed.
"You go, I just need a word with the Baron. You don't happen to know where he spends his nights, do you?" He turned when he heard the ghost's voice behind him.
"Well usually, tonight I would be playing Bridge, but I wanted to see how things were going here. As interesting as expected, I see!" The Baron laughed and the other students gave up and excused themselves. "Now, what can I do for you, Mr Addams?"
"Baron, I'm going to need a place to perform a ritual and would prefer not to go out to the forest right now. Do you know of anywhere?" He didn't need to say 'dark ritual'. He smiled darkly down at his hand. A hand that nobody else had noticed was still clenched.
The next morning, Draco thought it was a good thing that Herido had slept late and hadn't come to breakfast with the other first years. Mail had come early and every single pure-blood and many half-bloods had received a letter from their parents. It seemed that word had quickly spread about an Addams attending school with their children.
It had been a little awkward to greet Hermione without Heri present, but once Draco excused himself to read the letter from his father, he was glad that he'd made the effort. The letter had lacked most of the pomp that his father usually indulged in. It informed Draco in plain English that it was understood the Addams' were the darkest family known to the wizarding community, and that they had immense power to back that up, that their wealth far outstripped the Malfoy's, and that their political influence was undisputed. He also said that the Addams' children attended muggle school which was against the law in America, but hadn't been stopped. That thought left a sour taste in his mouth. Associating with muggles? He could only pray that wasn't true.
All in all they were a powerful family. But what really got to Draco was the warning within the words. It was the same warning he had received the day before, only this time Lucius had included a why: apparently anyone who had challenged, opposed or simply got in the Addams' way end up dealing with tragedy and defeat – powerful businessmen had gone bankrupt, influential socialites reduced to anxious shut-ins, prominent lines had died out due to unexplainable tragedies, political secrets outed and politicians impeached. The list went on. The family weren't just dark, they were extremely dangerous. Draco could hardly believe that one family could be responsible for so much fear, but the Slytherin table had been completely subdued after everyone had received their own letters. Most likely letters just like his, Draco thought.
It just seemed so illogical that a family no one ever really talked about above the odd whisper held so much power. If it was true then why didn't they use any of it? Lucius had speculated that all the mystery surrounding the family was part of its power. For reasons unknown, nobody ever seemed willing to talk about their own encounters with the family. All the rumours about them came from simply observing effect and consequence, as well as a handful of old stories that were assumed to be rumours.
Draco was intrigued, but also a bit freaked out. The family sounded more like an urban legend than anything else! He shook his head and went back to breakfast, taking note of all the quiet whispering and looks of trepidation – mostly from the Slytherin students.
He saw Hermione sitting alone, reading some textbook or another, but noticed that no one was bothering her this morning even after he'd left her alone to read his letter. He re-joined her – now convinced he'd made the right choice in tolerating the girl and sensing much less hate from his peers for doing so.
"Draco what on earth is going on? Did Heri do something to the Slytherins?" She asked him as soon as he was seated. Why would she think Heri had done something? Oh right, she of course hadn't received a letter. He shook his head.
"No, I just imagine that a lot of students have received orders from their parents about not antagonising Herido." He suggested but she just frowned.
"Why would parents care about it? I know he's a little… but I'm sure there are quite a few students like that in Slytherin." Draco was a little confused. Granger seemed to know more about Herido than anyone else – well, more fact at least. Perhaps it was just because she wasn't used to their society yet.
"He comes from a powerful family. It's a politics thing." He said nonchalantly.
"I know his family are… wait is that why you've been so nice to me?" She asked and Draco actually felt a little, tiniest bit bad about the question; he hadn't really been nice to her after all, he just hadn't attacked her.
His young mind raced to find an answer. If he confessed he was sure the news would get back to Addams and all his work so far would be for nothing, but he couldn't really deny it, could he? In the end he decided that if he was going to be around Granger for the long haul, he'd have to be a little more of himself around her and aimed for somewhere in-between.
"Don't get me wrong, you seem really, erm, intelligent and everything, but I was raised to believe that muggleborns don't deserve magic, so if you hadn't already known Herido, I doubt I'd have given you the time of day," No, he'd have been in the lynch mob. "But my friendship with Herido was unexpected. I'm glad it happened though. With both him and you." She was frowning and Draco was beginning to worry. He should have just denied everything. She stood and grabbed an apple.
"I'll see you in class, Draco." She declared. Shit.
He was in two minds about whether to go after her, when he was joined by a few of his Slytherin friends. He looked up to see Adrian Pucey, an older student greet him.
"Is it true, Malfoy? What our parents are saying?" He was straight down to business. Draco probably didn't know any more than them, but there was no reason to let them know that.
"Don't you trust your own parents?" He asked and went back to his breakfast.
"Knock it off, Malfoy. What do you know? Everyone has gotten scary letters about Addams, but there are a few claiming that it's all nonsense and we shouldn't been cowed by some ridiculous stories! I'm tempted to agree given his choice of friends and the fact I'd never heard of him before yesterday! You obviously know something? What with how you've befriended the mudblood and all?" It was Bulstrode this time.
"I know that I would take care when using that word around him, isn't that right, Nott?" The students turned to question said boy and Draco made his getaway. He most certainly didn't think it was nonsense. In fact, he thought some of his housemates were burying their head in the sand. This would have all been so much more straight forward if Heri had dealt with the situation last night!
Hermione made it back to the common room in time to see Marcus Flint being levitated out on a stretcher. She saw that the Zabini boy was there and asked him what had happened.
"Nobody knows. His year mates let him sleep late, and then when they came to tell him to get ready for class, he wouldn't wake up!" Both first years were thinking the same thing; this was somehow down to Heri, but they were saved from voicing their opinions by the sound of violent coughing coming from the dorms.
When Heri reached the common room, he had to stop, doubled over as each cough felt like it was ripping out his lungs. He just couldn't decide whether these little perks of smoking were worth the lack of self-control that came with addiction. He didn't actually smoke all the time, but when he did he got through packets at a time. He had enjoyed himself so much last night that he'd ended up lighting up, and this had led to him chain-smoking the night away as he indulged in punishing the mean looking boy.
Once he was able to breathe again, Hermione tossed him an apple which he gratefully accepted.
"Addams," Blaise started, "have you heard about what happened to Flint?" Addams' smile told him everything he needed to know.
"No, I've not heard anything." He hadn't heard anything – he'd just got up. "Hermione, I'm hoping you picked up a class schedule?" It was too early to deal with the chipper students and he would like to avoid the Great Hall if at all possible.
"I did, of course." Right, he should have just assumed. "Heri I need to talk to you."
"Of course, of course." He said as he made his way over to her. "Blaise, if you could just give us a moment?" He asked and Blaise couldn't believe the boy in front of him expected him to leave the common room to give them privacy! Wouldn't it be more practical for them to leave? He gave them a questioning look, but gave his ascent and left. "What is it?"
"It's Draco… well it's everyone. They all seem to be…oh I don't know. But I'm worried that Draco only wanted to be friends with us because he thinks your family is influential." Heri let out a laugh.
"Influential? We're basically just a normal American family." Ok, Hermione knew for certain that that was not true. And his sly smile told her that he knew it too. "It's just the Addams charm. It happens all the time. And hey, it's not as though you would let Draco use you for his own ends, you're too smart. So who cares why he accepted your friendship? There are tons of reasons for approaching someone, it only matters whether you like what you see once you've scratched the surface. If he only accepted you because of me then he should be congratulated for his cunning and daring – he stood against most of his friends for you last night after all," She hadn't forgotten.
"But how can you tell if he's genuine? What if I can't tell that he's using me? Or you?" She had to know. She didn't want to be a fool.
"Easy!" He declared. "You give him the benefit of the doubt and accept his friendship. And if he does end up betraying your trust, you make him regret it for the rest of his life!" His eyes had that look that promised pain when he spoke. "And I am confident that you will be able to think of something to make that happen." She actually felt better.
"Hey, Heri? What did you do to Flint?" He looked at her a moment. She was sporting her own gaze of malintent. He smiled.
"Why don't I show you?"
"After class though, right? I simply can't fall behind on my first day!" She really was something else.