Chapter 8 – The Slytherin Elite
Professor Heston sat in the front of the class at his desk when the students began to flood in. He wore a bored expression while reading a book. Albus, Rose and Alex took seats in the back; Rose being the only one to take out her book The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. Heston looked different then when Alex saw him in the Headmistress' office. His hair for one was now longer and in a ponytail down to his waist but still black. Heston was also wearing a dark Muggle suit with a white shirt, green tie and square glasses. Once everyone had settled in Heston closed his book and lifted his head to stare out at the students seated before him. His eyes focused when he saw Alex and a smirk stretched across his face.
"Well, well…It's Mr. Turin" Heston rose from his seat and the class turned to look at Alex, "Not gonna try and burn anyone today are you Mr. Turin?" Alex shook his head and hid his face with his hair, "Good because there's enough in this world to worry about. But of course you don't know about them yet and that's why you're here"
Professor Heston went on to teach the class but Alex still hung his head in shame.
"You alright Alex?" Albus asked.
"No ones ever going to forget that are they?" Alex asked referring to his reason for fame.
"Course not. It was legendary!" Liam had overheard and decided to add his two cents to the conversation. Albus and Rose glared at him, annoyed, so he turned back to listen to Heston.
"It'll fade from their memories eventually Alex. Something else will happen to distract them eventually" Rose said without looking over to Alex or stop writing down notes. Alex sighed, hoped she was right, and then lifted his head and listened to Heston speak.
"Now, you are all first year students and most of your work in this class will be writing papers. In fact…" Heston stuck his wand into his suit jacket to grab his wand and flicked it. Suddenly a cage appeared on his desk, containing a small blue creature.
"A pixie!" Cynthia, a girl from Ravenclaw squeeled, "It looks so cute!"
A moment after saying that, the pixie lunged at the side of the cage in the direction of Cynthia and hissed at her. Cynthia almost fell off of her stool but was caught by the students sitting beside her.
"Yeah, hardly 'cute'" Heston said once Cynthia was steady, "So for next class I would like you to write an essay on this creature in front of you" He walked to the chair behind his desk to pick up a cloak, "Be sure to include habitat, nature and Ministry classification. I'll see you all on Friday." The students looked at each other in confusion when Professor Heston began to leave the class.
"Umm…Professor…" Rose called out before Heston left the class. He turned around and began to stare at her, waiting for her to continue, "Where are you going? Class only just started…"
Heston shrugged, "Consider it over for today" And with a smile he walked out of class. The students all sat there for a few minutes before realising that he really wasn't coming back.
"Is he even allowed to do that? I don't think he's allowed to do that!" Rose complained. Albus, Alex and her were all walking down to the Great Hall from the D.A.T.D.A. tower. Most of the students had stayed in the class, afraid that Professor Heston would come back and punish those who left. Alex thought it would be a good idea to get started on the essay in the Great Hall, so Rose and Albus joined him. Rose still couldn't comprehend what Heston had done by the time they reached the doors to the Great Hall.
"I mean shouldn't the Head of a house be more responsible?" Albus began to chuckle at her constant chattering. His laughter stopped though, when they entered the Hall. Standing in front of them was a boy, blonde and wearing the Slytherin uniform. His face seemed to struggle to maintain its grouchy expression.
"Umm..who are you?" Albus asked. The boy held his head high in an attempt to look taller but his forehead didn't seem to go much higher than Albus' chin.
"I am Malfoy. Sc-Scorpius Malfoy" Some snickering could be heard from the Slytherin table. Rose and Alex saw a group of four older Slytherins sitting there watching this interaction; Albus kept his eyes on Scorpius.
"Oh, our parents know each other. Went to Hogwarts together, my name's Albus Potter. Nice to meet you" The gesture seemed to frighten Scorpius. He glanced over at the older group then quickly down at his feet. Albus could have sworn he was turning a little white.
"Come on Malfoy, what's taking so long!" A boy from the older group shouted out to them. Scorpius cringed and without notice pushed his way through Albus and walked out the door. The older group began to howl, disturbing everyone else in the Hall.
"Wow, Slytherins are even that cruel to their own housemates?" Alex thought out loud.
"Well there's a little more too it then that" James, Albus' older brother, walked up to them.
"James!" Albus said as a sort of greeting. He was surprised his brother was even talking to him; Albus had gotten the idea that James was going to avoid him all year.
"Do you know who they are James?" Rose asked him.
"They call themselves the Slytherin Elite. Think they're better than everyone, treat everyone like dirt. See the tall one?" Without trying to look like they were staring, the Gryffindor first years tilted their heads to see the tall boy with short brown hair, blue eyes and gaunt face. He sat on the table top with his feet resting on the bench, "He's Heston's younger brother, Joseph. Calls himself Jackal"
"Why Jackal?" Alex asked without taking his eye off Joseph.
"No idea. He's a fifth year. Been here longer then me. Anyway, he's their leader and Slytherin's Keeper. The other three are Quinn Tripe, Slytherin's Seeker, Stephen Draspire, Prefect, and Peter Deltin, rumor has it he's half giant. They go by Vixi, Stainless and Mediocre" The only girl in the group, Vixi, had slicked back black hair and a cruel smile that never seemed to go away. Stainless was the only one with glasses which were square and barely visible since he wore his cloak's hood so low. It was clear why there were rumours about Mediocre being half giant. He looked two heads taller then James sitting down and he had arms thicker than most tree trunks. He sat there with his head resting on his hand looking bored.
"They're recruiting and Alex is the target" Alex instantly asked why, "Beats me. Just thought you should know so something like what happened to Flint doesn't happen again"
"You're looking out for…us?" Albus almost said 'me' because he was confused as to why his brother was warning him. It seemed out of character from the brother he knew.
"You're all apart of Gryffindor now. And we've got to look out for each other" With that James left them in the Great Hall. The three of them sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. Albus was still confused; did his brother's warning simply come from house loyalty? He never really thought James was like that but he'd never seen him at school before. Albus thought he liked this James better.
Scorpius had made his way to the library. He was afraid of going to the Slytherin common room just in case the Elite decided to go there. He hid amongst the many lines of bookshelves and sat on the floor leaning against one. His father had told him to make friends and he failed. Every other first year Slytherin were cruel; Scorpius couldn't even pretend to like them. When he heard of the Elite and that there was a chance to join them he thought he had a good chance of doing as his father asked. They too were cruel but Scopius knew it'd be worth accepting if it meant joining their ranks. Problem was Scorpius wasn't cruel, he was uncharacteristically kind for a Slytherin. If the Sorting Hat hadn't asked him which house he wanted to be in, Scorpius would probably be in Hufflepuff.
More then anything Scorpius wanted to be in Slytherin just like his dad; plus he really liked the color. But the Sorting Hat said he lacked the cunning, the wit, that self-preservation that was better maintained by cruelty. Scopius promised that he would do anything, become anything, to be in Slytherin. But he was breaking his promise by being too afraid to piss off the Dragon Boy. The Elite even gave him the spell that would protect him from the flames but the thought of being burned was far too terrifying. Tomorrow was the flying class with the Gryffindors. If Scopius could manage to get Alex to attack him there than maybe he still had a chance to get in and prove he belonged in Slytherin.
No, not if. Scopius decided he would do it because he did belong in Slytherin.
A/N: Edited and cleaned 26/10/2011. Details on my profile.