Fixing up things as I go along... still working on the first two chapters, but I have to get my thoughts out for what's going to happen in this chapter. Otherwise my mind will explode. No joke. Okay, maybe it is a joke.
Chapter Three
The feast was magnificent.
Glasses clinked, forks clanged, plates clashed, and the House ghosts sang. To his right sat an African British boy named Simon Farmurkel. Simon, who had seen what transpired on the train involving Daemont, congratulated his victory upon meeting him, stuttering as he first approached him.
"Seriously," Daemont told Simon, "you make it sound much more difficult than it is. Parseltongue is an easy skill to attain, provided that you practice enough."
Simon sucked in his cheeks, smacked his lips, breathed in, and then breathed out, "y'sure make it sound easy as eating."
Daemont laughed joyously, as he took in a mouthful of roast beef.
The guy sitting directly across from him with an overly hooked nose and an eye-twitching comb-over haircut snickered before telling him, "If I were caught trying to talk to snakes, my father would've whipped me real good."
Daemont sighed, and replied with a mouthful of lettuce, saying, "Hey, I've got terrible news! The zoo's missin' a vulture. (Gulp!) I think you'd perfectly fit the profile of the said creature. Now flutter back, ugly fiend!"
The boy's face twisted into a nasty glare, "My father'll whip you good once I get a hold a' him!"
"I would like to see you try, seeing you go back home to what is very likely a dump, you smelly detrivore!"
Eyes shifted from the boy to Daemont as he said it.
The boy flipped over his black hair, and proclaimed, "I'm Lucas from the great Gungungstan family! Don't ever insult me or my family again, ya worm!"
Daemont snickered. "Putting forth your name before your family's name shows how conceited you are, and how you cower behind your family name as if it were a little fortress!" Lucas scratched his greasy head, confused. "What does 'conceited' mean? And 'cower'? D'you say those hard words just to throw me off? HUH?"
Daemont shook his head in a condescending manner, then looking at him straight in the eyes, "Your ignorance of those words further demonstrates your overall ignorance of your own worthless self and this frightening, beautiful world. You are unworthy of my time. Go away." Those words were uttered with venom and a piercing glare. Lucas quickly got up and ran away from the feast, towards the two massive doors and proceeded out of the Great Hall.
The area on the table around Daemont grew quiet.
Beside Daemont, Simon shivered from the intensity of the moment. "I don't think any first-years know those hard words you've said. Not sure if even the second-years understand half of what you've said. Or the third or fourth-year guys," cautioned Simon, quietly doing so.
"Yeah, you're probably right," whispered Daemont. "Sorry everyone," he apologized to the Slytherin table, "carry on, err, eating!" WIthout a fuss, the table turned back to its indulgence of the rich, wondrous food.
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Lora heard a loud pair of boys arguing at the Slytherin table. A funny looking boy got up from the table and ran from the Great Hall. She sniffed. "Hmph. Those savage snakes never do learn when to stop baring their fangs at everyone," said Cordelia Kin, a fellow first-year Ravenclaw student who took to Lora almost immediately following the Sorting Hat's decision to sort Lora into Ravenclaw.
"Yeah," Lora sighed as she looked over to the table, spotting Daemont instantaneously. Their eyes locked once more, then Lora lowered her gaze onto her dinner plate, feeling full. In her mind were conflicting thoughts about school life, the students from each of the four houses, but mostly about the nature of Daemont. Who was he?
"You alright, Lora?"
"Y-yes!"
"You don't look alright."
"I am. Thanks for asking."
"Okay."
After Cordelia did an accidental burp following the conclusion of the feast, the Ravenclaw students were led up through the Grand Staircase and onto the fifth floor. There, they had gone down the hallways leading up to Ravenclaw Tower. The staircase leading up to the Ravenclaw common room was tedious for the tired, young wizards.
They came across a bronze knocker who asked them a question, much to Lora's wonder and delight.
"What had two wings, and swooped in to devour the Beetle?" The students were talking amongst themselves for the answer for around five minutes before finally a boy popped up, shouting out loud, "The Bard!" The bronze knocker shook, "Correct you are!" It took a second for Lora to understand the clever usage in wordplay.
The door opened to a very airy room with windows that showed to Lora the Hogwarts Grounds. One could see the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch, along with the Herbology Greenhouses and the Black Lake. Even the Forbidden Forest was in plain sight.
Lora took the time to closely observe the rest of the common room, and saw that it had bookshelves along with chairs, tables, and couches. There at the end of the common room in front of the door leading to the dormitories, the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw was to be seen in all her perceived glory.
After the initial cheer had subsided, Lora went through the door behind the statue, going through another door that led to the Girls' Dormitories. To her amazement, all of her luggage was neatly placed at the foot of her bed. She changed quickly into her night gown, and dived right into her four-poster bed with blue hangings, covered with vibrant, sky blue silk.
Her thoughts wandered back to Daemont; was he okay? Had she hurt his feelings by acting cold to him? But then again, wasn't he after all a Slytherin? Someone to be feared as well as despised?
No, she thought to herself, he was not somebody one would hate at first glance, then giggled to herself when she was reminded of the vicious argument that had just taken place about what was now an hour ago. She made a note to herself to later apologize to him.
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Daemont followed the rest of the Slytherin house down to the dungeons, where it was noticeably darker than the rest of the castle, particularly at night. As the group stood in front of a plain, brick wall that was accessed by going down a flight of stairs, the head boy Gilfred Tiles spoke the password. "Dragon egg!"
The brick wall opened up to reveal a dark common room with green lamps placed throughout the room. Many students breathed in awe, while others had gaping mouths. Daemont sat down on a cushy chair, taking in all the common room had to offer. He got up, and grabbed a book from the shelf that looked to have been interesting. It was titled, "The Many Nights of Schoedenborne Gnaw," authored by David Prowle. Some students went up to choose their bed while two others stayed in the common room after Simon told Daemont he would save Daemont the best bed. Daemont smiled, and went back into the book.
"Whatcha readin'?" asked a girl kneeling down right behind him, glancing into the book.
"You can read this after and find out for yourself," smiled Daemont as he said this without looking back to face her.
The girl pinched his right cheek from behind, "Go back to the beginning. I wanna read it with you."
Without removing his eyes from the book, Daemont said, "You're that red-haired girl who tousled my hair after spotting me come down from the Sorting Hat You've got green eyes, am I correct?"
She giggled, "Of course you'd absorb that info like a sponge."
Daemont yawned, "Well, I'd best be getting to bed. Have a good night, err... Kendra..."
"Kendra Malkovik."
"Right."
"Second year."
"Oh, okay, cool."
He went off to the boys' dormitories, and saw the bed that had been reserved for him by Simon, seeing as how there were no other beds open. This one had a great view of the Black Lake. He loved it.
Listening to the waves gently lapping against the window made Daemont gradually fall asleep.
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He dodged the blast from the front of him with sheer luck on his side.
"Drat!" he exclaimed, running towards the tree to his left and cowering behind it like a frightened squirrel.
"CRUCIO!" shouted a wizard directly behind him, pointing his wand at the boy's back.
The boy writhed in agony on the dark, wet grass as the spell performed its function, his long, white hair sprawled on the ground in an utter mess.
The full moon shone down upon him like a spotlight, inviting the surrounding wizards to unleash a storm of curses. However, rather than choosing to kill him quickly, they all decided to follow up with the same spell.
After what seemed like hours to the boy with the tortured soul, the spell casters were revealed to have cloaks tinged with grey. One of the militant wizards walked briskly towards the boy lying on the ground. "Did it feel good to you, Mr. Woodlock?" he said, before snickering to his fellow comrades, by which they applauded in response.
"The level of hatred we as a group have for people like you is insurmountable; there is nothing comparable to this seething anger that we all wish we could direct at you." He looked up now to the rising sun; it had really been that long of a night for Rukator Woodlock. "But, alas, you will not be given any way to cause harm to our group, given that we shall, through our collective power, render you immobile at worst, and greatly restricted at best."
They resumed their attack on the young boy, not giving Rukator the chance even to utter a single word of protest through painful breaths.
Loud, terrible screams filled the hours from the late evening to the early morning.
øøø
Kamatouge Yrepra looked through the glass window of the Headmaster's bedroom, overlooking the grounds of the school. Having been a former Hogwarts student himself two decades ago, Kamatouge learned how to communicate with those younger than himself again through becoming Headmaster for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The sun was rising again, and before long, students would be up for their early morning breakfast and proceed to their classes and come out of them better wizards-and hopefully better people-coming out of them. A cup of tea was his choice of refreshment, as he closely observed the morning dew on the grass with his sharp vision.
Something quickly darted from left to right in his view of the grounds. He yelped in fear as the thing landed on the window from the inside; it was a mere fly.
Flustered with himself, he pointed his wand at the small creature, ending its life and watching it fall towards his feet. He crushed it with his right foot, chuckling as he did so.
The young headmaster grabbed his cup of tea and drank from it, later realizing that nothing was in the cup as he had been so preoccupied with business regarding the new school year that was to be. "Good grief," he muttered to himself as he went to fill up his cup, "can't there be any rest for a studious man such as myself?"
He sighed. If only looking at the sun could've told him all he had needed to know, going forth that day.
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Simon opened his eyes to a room with a small pond in the middle, surrounded by beds with green silk hangings and silver bedspreads, water plopping against the windows. It didn't take long for his eyes to adjust to the light emitting from the silver lanterns hanging by the ceiling.
The early morning breeze was not felt in the dormitory, as the placement of the dungeons were below the Black Lake. Looking through a window, Simon saw many bizarre and wonderful looking creatures of all shapes and sizes, including but not limited to giant, spiked fish and small fries. A giant squid bared its eye at the window and Simon screamed, breaking the silence and awakening everyone in the room. Except for Daemont.
Rather than choosing to get up, Daemont continued to lie in bed, dreaming a presumably wonderful dream, seeing as how his face was wrapped up in a tight smile. Simon nudged him. Harder, he thought to himself. Daemont still wouldn't budge. Simon sighed. He tried again, harder than last time.
Daemont jerked awake, "Blaaah!" Everyone eyed him in annoyance. A softly muttered apology could be heard from him, as he got dressed into his uniform while thinking about the book he had read the night before and about Lora. Lora Kastome. He shook his head while thinking of her, wondering what he'd done wrong to turn her off from him. That gentle, kind, beautiful girl with silky smooth brown hair and hazel eyes; traits to die for! He shook his head when he realized that he was about to walk into the little pond in the middle of the dormitory.
His thoughts quickly shifted to his studies. Yes, his studies. It wasn't as though he knew much about the magical world, though. While his mother was a witch, she never really bothered to raise him up to be a wizard in a true sense, meaning that she encouraged strong relationships and interactions with muggles.
Daemont found those bonds impossible to make, as nearly every muggle he'd encounter thought of him as eccentric, or worst of all, uninteresting. Did they think of him as simply ordinary? He dreaded the question.
Since the entire boys' dormitory was awoken by Simon's screaming, they all went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
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Sleep came easily for Lora, and as a result, she didn't need to be awoken by the sound of any one of her dormitory mates making loud noises in order to jolt her awake. A thought entered into her mind as soon as she had fully woken up; she was finally at Hogwarts, home of the brave, ambitious, hardworking, and intelligent. Being careful not to wake anybody in her dormitory up, she got up from her bed and shuffled through her luggage.
Daemont. Yes, Daemont entered into her mind for a brief moment, making her wonder about what to make of him. It was the Slytherins who caused the Battle of Hogwarts to take place, for had it not been the Death Eaters, there would not have been so many casualties. She grimaced, realizing that her thoughts were not taking into consideration that Daemont was not like those Death Eaters, although a flicker of doubt kept on crossing her mind.
Why did she think that the boy who provided her company aboard the train and on the boat getting to Hogwarts would be equitable to the likes of a Death Eater? It was a question she kept asking herself as the time slowly ticked by. She resumed her search for the appropriate clothing.
The next few minutes were a breeze, as she hummed a tune to herself while getting dressed up for the day, then proceeded downstairs with her schoolbooks so that she'd be ready to dash out of the Great Hall to attend her morning classes.