Heeeyyyy I know, I know; I'm a terrible person, and I should update more often. There's not a set date for updating, so get over it. I just kinda got stuck, but I'm not gonna sit here and bore you to death with my excuses-you can just read the story. :) I can't remember who reviewed my last chapter, and frankly, right now I'm too tired to go look so I'll just credit you guy brilliant people in the next one. Enjoy and R/R!

Heads Up: I'm also reaaalllyyy lazy and running on very little sleep so I haven't looked through this for misspells. Please either ignore them, or, if they really bug you, let me know in a review or something.

Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own it, sorry. The only thing I own is my OC Kol Ashford. :)

Unexpected guest

Chapter Seven

Harry, Fred, and George weren't quite sure what to make of their roommate. At times he was outgoing, quick to laugh, and witty. Other times, he was very much the brother of Snape; having antisocial periods where he would practically live in the library researching god only knows what. The only conclusions that they could accurately draw was that he was an American, an apparent child prodigy, and he had a chronic case of smartass, even though he could be polite when he wanted to be. The list of those people to whom he was polite was very short, however. The person who topped that list seemed to be his older brother, Snape, although why anybody would want to actually like the greasy git was beyond most of the people living in the house. He refused to hear a bad word said about his brother, so most bad-mouthing was done when he wasn't in the room. Fred, George, and Harry had wondered though, what exactly Snape could have done for his younger sibling to inspire such loyalty. George was of the opinion that Snape had rescued him in some sort of dramatic way that involved raging hippogriffs and running away from shampoo-wielding leprechauns. Fred and Harry nearly wet themselves laughing at that explanation.

Right now, Kol was currently in one of his antisocial moods and hadn't been seen in almost four days. Harry was sure that he was eating because Kreacher (who for some unfathomable reason loved the bloke) would scurry away with a plate and glass during mealtimes and returned with the dirty dishes. Harry and the twins were itching to see what it was that he'd been working on, but the adults had proclaimed the library out-of-bounds about a fortnight ago, to Hermione's fury and Harry's disappointment. This of course just made the twins even more curious than they already were.

As such, they only plan they had was to try to sneak in at night, but there was no set curfew for anyone in the house. So while the children might be sent to bed, the times varied for anyone older than that. The multiple problems involved made the planning extend further than it normally would for such a 'small' (according to the twins) operation. As it turned out, by some stroke of luck, that the planning wasn't needed; towards the end of the fourth day without seeing the American, Harry, Fred, and George ran into him on the stairs as he was leaving the library.

He was holding an ancient-looking tome open in one of his hand that seemed to be dog-eared on some pages (Hermione would have a fit if she saw) and had multiple notes sticking out haphazardly in random places. One sheet of paper (Harry noted that it was actual paper, and not parchment) was laid out on the open page and Kol was twisting a pen in his other hand and occasionally jotting something down as he walked. He didn't seem to notice them as he walked right on by them and disappeared into their shared room.

All three of them exchanged looks and edged up to the landing to see if they could catch a glimpse of the notes. As they reached the top Kol came striding out of the room carrying a second book now, pen now clamped firmly in his teeth as he flipped furiously through the pages of the book. As he rushed past them and vanished once again into the library, Harry was close enough to see the titles of both the books.

When the library door slammed shut Harry turned back to face the twins, raising his eyebrows. "Now why on earth would he need to have Magick Moste Evile and Secrets of the Darkest Art?"

Kol's P.O.V.

Kol sat at his desk in the Black family library, staring down at the book in disgust. He was no stranger to gruesome rituals required to perform Black Magic, but this—this was beyond sick; it was twisted and horrible.

Horcruxes. They were the vilest thing Kol had ever heard of, and there was a reason that many people had not—Necromancers weren't exactly keen on letting the whole world know about the nasty things they could accomplish. In fact, they actively hid the knowledge of Horcruxes and a few other select things that they felt the general public didn't need to know. The perversion of your own soul was just about the worst thing you could do to yourself. Despite the fact that it made you incredibly hard to kill, the long-term health benefits weren't exactly great; recorded subjects were known to have decreased mental faculties, memory loss, insanity, and the actual act of ripping your soul in two was documented to mutate the original body to have animalistic features—thus Voldemort's lack of nose and creepy-ass eyes.

It was no wonder Dumbledore wanted a qualified Necromancer to come take a look at this—frankly, Kol was surprised that Dumbledore and managed to get as far as he had in his research, but without Kol's help, he might have gone on for a while more not being able to put the pieces together. And, not being a fully-fledged Necromancer as Kol was, he still wouldn't have known as much as Kol did, simply because Dumbledore was firmly into Light Magic and nothing else. It was hard to understand something that was inherently against your magical core's tendencies, so Kol was sure that almost none of the Order would have been able to study his chosen field of Magic to any great success.

Kol scratched a few more notes down, and then decided to tidy up his workspace—accomplishing this with a flick of his wand. He shuffled some loose notes together and then, with another swish of his wand, bound them together. He put away the books he had out and tucked his own personal copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art into his bottomless and feather-light backpack—not exactly something he wanted to leave about for anyone to see.

He grabbed his notes and backpack to make his way downstairs to the Order meeting that was probably in the middle of happening (he wasn't down there now because he was researching, and once he was done researching, he was gone) stopping only long enough to drop his backpack off in his room with charms to guard against any curious roommates (he wasn't completely oblivious). He carefully opened the door to the kitchen, not wanting to smack someone in the back, he knew that the space was cramped enough anyways, but fill the place up with the entire Order and it was a mess. The conversation dropped abruptly as he stepped in, small sighs of relief came from around the room as everyone realized he wasn't one of the children.

"Ah! Come in, my boy, come in." Called Albus, "How goes your research?"

A couple people leaned forward a bit, eager to hear what it was that he'd been researching for the past couple months, and what Dumbledore wouldn't tell them.

Kol help up the bound sheaf of his notes. "I've just finished, actually." Dumbledore looked on interested. "But I think, if you still wanted to keep this quiet, we should probably have this conversation later." He tried to ignore the hard look on Mad-Eye's face, and the calculating stare from his brother. Severus had no idea what he had been looking up, he just knew that Dumbledore had mentioned in conversation about hiring a Necromancer and had offered to contact his sibling.

"Of course," Said Dumbledore, moving to stand. "I believe we are done here anyway," He smiled at the seated group. "I'm sure you can split the guarding duties amongst yourselves, please excuse the two of us." There were some grumbles from the small crowd as he swept past Kol and led the way to an empty sitting room. They sat after Dumbledore cast a few privacy spells. Dumbledore's cheery facade was gone, then, and replaces with the serious face of a general. "Now," He began. "What have you found?"

TaDaaa! I made a thing, just for you! :) yup, I'm tired. I need sleep. I hope you liked it, if so, please lemme know and review. If not, then please also review and tell me why you didn't, and because either way, regardless of whether or not you liked it, it's good for me because MORE REVIEWS. So yeah, if you want faster updates, leave me more reviews and that'll draw out the creative juices in my brains (or lack thereof) and allow me to squeeze out another chapter. R/R and F/F if you haven't already! :)))