Making his way through the halls and through the throngs of students on their way towards the Great Hall, Faeran made his way towards the dungeons.
As he did, those bearing the colours of red, blue and yellow on their uniforms began to drastically lower until it was mostly only those in green and silver trimmed uniforms and robes that loitered around the halls.
The Slytherin dormitory was in the dungeons after all.
He attracted quite a few eyes, especially from the upper year Slytherins who were eying him. Quite a few he remembered as having tried to corner him before in the past month. Before, Faeran would have ducked his head and hastily made a bid to quickly reach his destination.
Now, he jutted his chin out proudly and dared any of them to approach him. Before, when it came to physical confrontations, he was a complete novice that had barely been in any proper fights before.
Now, he was half a teenager who grew up scrapping his way to his teenage years with a cocky gait in his step. His counterpart had been in so many fights over the years growing up to the same age as he, that he had actually lost count long ago.
And with the experience of having knives pulled on him multiple times and being jumped by full on gangs of thugs, Faeran found himself not fearing any of these foolish twats trying to pressure him into joining their 'cause'.
Not long later he reached the staircase leading down to where the potion classes were, a long spiralling thing that went way down over a hundred feet and made his way down it.
As he neared the bottom though, he heard voices. Multiple of them, but two male voices stood out amongst the rest, louder and more audible and dripping with mocking derision.
"-I d think you'd be happy with the lenience being shown to you Bones," one of the voices pointed out, "It's not everyday the Dark Lord lets a blood traitor like you live. Course, he wasn't all that forgiving with that stupid aunt of yours now was he?"
Faeran frowned, the voice was familiar. And, there was only one Bones in the school. Susan Bones, heiress to the Bones family and niece of the former Head Auror and possible Minister of Magic Amelia Bones who was murdered over the Summer.
"Shame that, she was quite the looker," another male voice snorted, before adopting a flirtatious tone, "Least you're still around eh Bones? And you definitely take after her quite nicely if I do say so myself."
What a creepy bastard.
There was silence. Susan didn't respond to their words.
Before, this would have been a good time to turn around about and leave. Whoever these fuckers were, they were definitely Death Eater's in training at the very least.
Now though, he outright scoffed inwardly at the thought of turning tail from losers like this, so he continued on.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and the first thing he saw was an older girl with long golden blonde hair sitting on the steps, clad in a slytherin robe open at the front. At the sound of his footsteps she turned around to look at him.
Bright green eyes stared at him boredly, plump lips held in an impassive frown. Purple eye shadow highlights the brightness of her eyes, while silver snake earrings hung from her dainty earlobes.
Faeran had to stop himself from stopping and staring, her school shirt had the top few buttons undone allowing a deep well of bodacious cleavage from a pair of large, round breasts to sit clear in view.
Daphne Greengrass met his eyes for a moment, before shifting to the side to let him by and turning away from him, completely dismissing him of having any importance.
Damn, Harry really had some grade A lookers in his year man.
But Faeran put that out of mind and continued down, stepping past her through the space she left and finally saw who was causing the commotion he heard.
It was two boys from the same year who he recognised on sight. A tall, thin dark skinned boy with short cropped hair, while the other was a scrawny weasel faced boy with messy brown hair.
Blaise Zabini and Theodorre Nott. Two very outspoken staunch blood purists that were very much part of Draco Malfoy's 'posse'.
Zabini had his arm wrapped around the shoulder of another older girl with long lovely orange tresses done up in a braid and light blue eyes with a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Susan Bones. Though, he only recognised her from her face. She was a bit taller than he remembered, though not by much, but she'd changed a great deal in one way.
Susan Bones had always been a bit 'pudgy'. Though it didn't detract from her looks, especially with how large her breasts had been, one couldn't deny she had some meat to her bones.
He was quite well aware of how she looked, seeing as she starred in quite a few of his fantasies last year when they were both part of the DA.
Not now though. She'd lost a great deal of weight since he last saw her when Harry was teaching them both, and she had great big bags under her eyes as if she hadn't been sleeping well at all. Though she still had a little bit of meat to her.
She was looking at the ground, lips pressed tightly together and clutching her books to her curvaceous chest that seemed to have grown even bigger over the summer tightly.
Three sets of eyes went to him as soon as he reached the bottom.
"Well well well, if it isn't little Shafiq," Nott sneered at him, pushing up off the wall he was leaning against, "Finally come out of that hole you were hiding in have you?"
As the weasel faced slytherin swaggered his way over to Faeran trying to look intimidating Zabini looked at him from where he was holding Susan around the shoulders, "Good timing runt, we were just getting in to telling Bones here how the smart thing of her to do is declare for the Dark L-"
Zabini was cut off. But not by anyone speaking. Rather, he was cut off by Faeran stepping forward and lashing out with a haymaker that caught Nott right in the jaw. the weasel faced sixth year squealed sharply and hit the ground, clutching at his face.
Zabini fell silent and went wide eyed and even Greengrass's eyes went wide, "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to ya' fuckin' wee pansy!" Faeran's voice took on a thick Scottish brogue and instead of allowing Nott to reply he lashed out with a kick that caught him in the stomach drawing another squeal from him. And then again, and again and again.
Within moments Faeran had laid five kicks right into the stomach of the dropped teenager and left him clutching both his face and stomach was he cried great big snotty tears
"W-what are you doing you crazy fuck!" Zabini's shout stopped him from continuing to kick Nott and Faeran looked over to him to see the dark haired boy staring at him wide eyed, wand held at the ready in his grip, his hands shaking.
Fucking pussy didn't even have the guts to fire off a spell at him after seeing him take down his 'friend'. The trademark of a coward that could only talk big words and act the part, all bark and no bite. As soon as someone with actual balls stepped up he trembled like a little bitch.
"I'm putting this twat in his place," Faeran sneered right back, "Who the fuck do you think you idiots are throwing around the Dark Lord's name around a fucking school? Do you think he fucking cares?" he demanded and then let loose another kick into Nott's stomach.
Zabini trembled, "W-we all know he's back, and t-there's no way Potter and Dumbledore can stop him," the dark skinned boy responded, "It's either join him or die Shafiq, attacking us is like going against him!"
"Is it fuck!" Faeran laughed, "Like I said, you think he cares about a school boy beating up two other school boys for throwing his name around? Say you are right, either way, I'm pretty sure he'd rather have me than you two clowns."
Zabini gaped at him, and Faeran took the chance to bring up his wand and lash out at the dark skinned boy, "Stupefy!" Faeran shouted, and a bright red bolt of red magic shot from the tip of his wand.
The bolt of red magic slammed into the dark skinned boys chest before he could react and lifted him up bodily off of his feet and carried him a good ten feet back where he slammed into the ground unconscious.
Faeran blinked and his mouth fell low, '...That was stronger than I remember.' he thought. And now that he thought about it, he'd used quite a few spells in the last little while and he barely felt the drain on his magic at all.
His magic power, had grown stronger somehow? 'Is it because of me getting that other Faeran's memories?' he wondered for a moment, before putting it out of mind.
He had other priorities to deal with right now. Susan was still silent and when he looked at her, he noted the orange haired girl was just staring at his handiwork wide eyed.
So, Faeran turned to the beautiful blonde sitting on the steps, "What about you Greengrass, want to try your luck?" he asked, baring his teeth at her, "Just a warning though, I don't mind hitting a girl no matter how pretty."
Daphne stared at the whimpering crying form of Theodore Nott and then looked to the unconscious form of the dark skinned Zabini, "No, I think I'm quite good here," the blonde snorted, "I told them not to bother Bones, I figured she'd end up telling Potter and come thrash them, but the result is still the same. The flimsy Shield charm I can cast wouldn't hold up at all to that stunning spell of yours, I know when to pick and choose my battles."
Well, she was right in assuming Harry would be able to thrash them. He'd duelled Harry last year and hadn't lasted ten seconds. Not many from the DA could last that long in fact. The sheer speed of his spells, and the sheer power behind them coupled with his insane reflexes made Harry an utter monster with a wand in hand.
"It's not that impressive, Susan should have been able to deal with these two herself easily," Faeran replied, she was one of the top students in the DA last year after all. He cast a glance back to look at her as he said so and she met his gaze for a moment before looking away. The hell was up with her? Putting it out of mind for the moment he looked back at Daphne, "Still, why the hell are you even here if you didn't agree with the two morons? Hell, you haven't even drawn your wand." as he said so, his eyes dipped to her long, lovely legs that were crossed one over the other, specifically to mid-way up her thigh where he could see a green garter that held her wand, the tip of it squishing against the fullness of said thigh almost erotically.
It made him want to feel how those full thighs would feel in his hands.
"Stupid as they are, they're not wrong," Daphne shrugged, "They've got ties to the Dark Lord, or at least his Death Eaters." she caught his eyes and the blonde jutted her chin at the whimpering form of Nott.
Ah, right. Wasn't his father a Death Eater or something? There was definitely a Nott that turned up at the graveyard when Voldemort was reborn.
"My family is neutral in all this," the blonde continued on, "But if pushed, we'll choose the side that looks to be winning, and right now, that seems to be the Dark Lord."
"Smart of you." Faeran nodded. After all, if it meant saving his life he'd most likely join Voldemort as well if it came down to it.
"Not so smart of you though," Daphne snorted, "This will definitely get back to them in some way, and as the heir of one of the Sacred Twenty Eight, you have a lot of eyes on you."
"And like I said, I doubt he'll care." Faeran shrugged, though he was quite thankful for her confirmation of his thoughts.
"Maybe, but is it worth the risk?" Daphne pointed out, before standing up and dusting off her skirt, "Still, you're quite interesting aren't you Shafiq?" the blonde asked, walking over to him.
"..In what way?" Faeran raised an eyebrow at her.
"You're way bolder than I thought you'd be, and the casual way you tossed out that stunning spell, I'm impressed, for your age you're quite powerful," the blonde mused, "I think I'll keep an eye on you." Daphne winked at him, before walking passed him and slipping her wand into her skirt to pull out her wand.
With a few muttered words, both Zabini and Nott were levitated into the air and she walked off into the dungeons with them floating behind her.
Now that was just weird. He basically kicked the shit out of two her friends and that made her think he was interesting?
Faeran sighed and shook his head, turning his attention back to his red haired acquaintance who had been completely silent all this time.
…So…" Faeran looked the older redhead in the eye, "What was that about beyond the obvious? I mean, you could have easily taken them both down."
He wasn't even exaggerating. Nott and Zabini were clowns with little skill to back up their shit. He'd gotten their measure last year when they simpered up Umbridge's flabby arse and joined her Inquisitorial Squad alongside a bunch of other Slytherin's.
Not to mention he'd made sure to ask Hermione Granger who to look out for amongst them. Though as it turned out, when it came to fighting with magic, the only one to really keep an eye out for was Malfoy. The rest weren't much at all beyond a few jinxes and curses.
And both Nott and Zabini were in the lower caste of their little hierarchy. Nott was a weasel who clung on to others while Zabini was…well, to sum it up, a fuck boy. Good looking and rich, but never worked or exercised a day in his life, so he was slender and unfit.
Honestly, between the pair of them Faeran doubted they could muster a proper disarming charm or shield charm. Granted, most adult magic users these days outside of the aurors apparently couldn't either.
In contrast, Susan while far from the best in the D.A, was far from the worst as well and was within the top ten of the club. Which, was actually quite impressive considering there was over fifty of them in the group and quite a few were sixth and seventh years at the time.
…Faeran himself took pride in the fact he'd been ninth ranked. He was only in his second year after all and for his age, learning the likes of spells ranging from the disarming charm, to the shield charm, confundus charm, summoning charm, banishing charm, reductor curse right up to the patronus charm was really impressive according to Hermione Granger.
He'd learned over a dozen spells in the D.A, including how to increase the power and rang of spells and ever since he got the patronus down, he'd found his skill with magic increasing vastly and found other less intense spells much easier to get down than usual.
Though, while he was proud of his own ability and he'd worked hard to learn magic ever since he arrived here, it could not be fully attributed to him.
If there were two things Harry Potter was beyond amazing at other than Quidditch, it was fighting and teaching. He'd taken a group of school children and made each and every single one of them capable of defeating the average Death Eater in a duel.
Which was why…Susan not fighting back against those two idiots didn't make sense to him.
Susan sighed, "I didn't see the point," she shrugged lightly, a motion that would usually have drawn the boys eyes to the older girls ample chest, but only made him frown, "I already saw what happens when you try and stand up to them. I'm just better of keeping my head down." she bit her lip and looked away.
As he looked into her eyes, Faeran saw…nothing. Her gaze was just blank, dead. She'd all but given up.
He supposed if he had a family member who was practically the most powerful person in the government, a shoe in for the next Minister of Magic, only for them to be ruthlessly murdered by a terrorist leader without anyone able to stop him, he might be just like her.
Hell, forget that. He was ranked ninth to Susan's tenth in the D.A and before he gained the memories of his other self…he'd been cowering away from the emboldened Slytherin's.
Honestly, there was nothing he could say right now to encourage her. Because he understood exactly where she was coming from.
"You don't think Harry can beat him?" he settled on asking instead.
It was no secret now that Harry was the chosen one after all.
Susan grimaced, "Harry's amazing…but he's just one person," she admitted, "Maybe if it was just between him and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, he could win. But..it won't be. It'll be Harry and his friends against them all while the Ministry and everyone buries their heads in the ground or chases useless things like publicity."
Shots fired. She didn't even have to say any names for him to know she was mostly talking about Scrimgeour, the new Minister of Magic.
Instead of doing the sensible thing like kicking down the doors of known former Death Eaters, wands blazing, he was busy wasting his time trying to get Harry as his poster boy and shit.
Meanwhile the main meeting ground for Voldemort's forces was Malfoy Manner.
Who could have ever saw that coming?
"You're not wrong," he begrudgingly admitted, though this did present a bit of an opportunity. Susan after all, while her Bones family was not a member of the Sacred Twenty Eight, was still an old pureblood family with much to offer, "Alright, if they bother you again, how about you tell me and I'll deal with them for you?"
Honestly, he was already debating the pros and cons of…making a few death eaters in training at the castle disappear. It would be oh so easy to do with magic at his disposal.
It was amazing the lengths he was considering already that he would never even have dreamed of just this morning.
Susan raised an eyebrow at him, before shaking her head, "You shouldn't get involved Faeran, you're just going to get yourself hurt, you're only a third year," she shook her head, "Even my friends are distancing themselves from me besides Hannah and Ernie, you're better off just ignoring me. Besides, how would I contact you anyway? It's not like I'll have time to write a letter through an owl or something to send you."
Him being only a third year didn't mean shit. Harry was fighting a Basilisk to the death with a sword in hand in his second year.
Though Ernie and Hannah sticking by her made sense. They were from families of the Sacred Twenty Eight like him after all. They'd be getting pressured just like him so they wouldn't be able to go unnoticed.
"You can just use the patronus, it can carry messages to certain people," Faeran pointed out with a smirk, happy to draw on a little bit of the knowledge he'd gained today to show off a bit. He swished his wand through the air, "Expecto Patronum!" he incanted, a silvery white light bursting into existence from the tip of his wand with a shining radiance and forming into a large, powerful shape far easier and quicker than it ever had before.
He blinked when he saw the beast that took form, '…That's different.'
"Wasn't your patronus a horse last year?" Susan asked, giving the shining white beast standing before him an odd glance.
"…Yeah, a Clydesdale stallion actually." Faeran confirmed with a nod. He'd been a big fan of his patronus, it was a massive charger after all.
All things considered though, it hadn't changed too much. It was still massive and a beast riddled with compact powerful muscle. It looked exactly the same actually…except for the fact that it was even bigger now, with a draconic looking head and huge bat-like wings on its back.
It looked more like a Thestral who was on a mean meaty protein filled diet…with a side dish of steroids of all shapes and flavours.
It was kind of badass actually, 'Did it change because of me merging with my other self?' he wondered, before putting it out of mind. It was cool, but nothing worth getting worked up over so instead he focused on it and directed a message to it mentally, "To Susan Bones." he directed it when he had.
It trotted over two single steps to Susan and bent down so its head was close to her own.
And then his voice echoed from its own mouth, "Susan I think you're really pretty, wanna go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"
Susan blinked, before snorting out a little giggle, her lips twitching up into a small smile, "That's impressive, I didn't know patronus' could do that," she mused and shook her head, "Sorry though Faeran, you're a little cutie but I don't really feel like dating anyone right now and you're a little young."
He shoots…and he misses.
Though that rejection. Ouch, he wasn't even in the running at all, she didn't even consider him viable with how easily she shot him down. 'See, this is what happens you're a scrawny runt.' he huffed internally.
"Fair enough," he shrugged, "At least I got a smile out of you."
"…I guess you did," Susan admitted, her smile fading away a moment later, "I don't know about asking you for help if they bother me again, but I am interested in learning how you did that."
Yeah, he wouldn't particularly find himself reliable looking either at the moment.
"Alright, it's simple enough…" Faeran began.
Minutes later, Susan continued on her way and Faeran watched her go with a frown, eyes on her hips.
He wasn't about to pass up the show, besides he was in deep thought. The little incident he was just in confirmed two things.
One, that the junior death eaters in training were a lot more active than the books suggested, though he already partially knew that from his own experiences.
The other was…that he didn't have a shot in hell with any of the really shaggable birds in the years above him as he was now. He was good looking and stylish with his new hair colouring, he'd even caught Susan eyeing it a bit, and Daphne had definitely been slightly interested in him because of his ability with a wand and attitude, though be bet his lineage helped with her.
But, that didn't mean anything when he had twiggy arms and wimpy, narrow shoulders.
'Definitely gonna need to work out.' he mused, turning away and continuing on his way towards Slughorn's office within the dungeons.
Well, it wasn't too big a deal. Building muscle would be so much simpler here.
Thanks to potions. He knew a lot of potions that could help with that. Potions that he'd barely put any thought into previously but now saw the wonders of. Nutrition potions, muscle repair potions, endurance enhancing potions, the invigoration draught and more.
Hell, they weren't even complicated potions. He'd learned them in his first and second year, alongside other really useful potions like a wit sharpening potion and memory enhancing potion.
They would go a long way to helping him learn spells and the like and retain information. Why did nobody use such useful potions?
'An outside perspective really does change a lot.' he couldn't help but shake his head.
It would cost a pretty penny to use them like he wanted, but thankfully for him he had full access to the Shafiq family vault and could do as he pleased with the money inside.
And a lot of interest had built up over companies and such over the last near one hundred years the family had looked like it had died out until he appeared, on top of the mass amount of gold that was already in there.
For instance, his family had shares in a Quidditch team. The Hollyhead Harpies. He didn't really care all that much for Quidditch, but he was all too happy to have a direct line of say in a team full of fit, athletic women.
Now that was definitely something to be happy about. And look more into actually now that he thought about it. He'd been too leery of messing with his families wealth and such while he was so young and hesitant, lacking in knowledge.
Now though, his horizons had broadened with the memories of his other self. And he cursed missed opportunities.
Like last year, he could have maybe gotten Angelina Johnson into bed if he promised her a try out with the Hollyhead Harpies. She'd been real stressed all of last year he'd noticed at the D.A because it was her last year at Hogwarts and she was desperate to make a good showing as the Gryffindor Captain, which was only made all the harder by Umbridge.
A shame really, Johnson had a massive arse. He would have loved to have her bouncing it up and down on his 'johnson'.
God, so much missed opportunities, what was the point of being a young rich noble heir of a highly regarded family if he didn't enjoy it?
So, here we back with chapter 2. Been a while for this story huh? Honestly, meant to get back to it earlier, but was rarely ever in a Harry Potter mood. But, now with Hogwarts Legacy almost upon us I thought it was a good time to get back to it a bit.
Quite a bit went on in this second chapter from running into a few Slytherins, meeting Susan Bones and Daphne and a little bit more background around Faeran and what he was going through. And how his merger with a much more confident and violent alternate self, makes these people he were afraid of seem so pathetic. And we're up to four chapters so far on the Pa-atreon.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.