Reviews:
Ltbutterfly287: Daphne is the second person.
Devilsummoner666: Hydrus doesn't like muggles but has no problems with muggleborns due to his birth mother and Andromeda's family. You have to wait to find out the rest.
Chapter 16 -
"And now that we're all full, I have a few start-of-term announcements." Professor Dumbledore said, standing up once all the food had been eaten and the leftovers magically vanished. "To begin with, the Forbidden Forest is as the name suggests, it is off limits to all students unless accompanied by a teacher. Our caretaker, Mr Filch," Dumbledore gestured to the back of the hall where a skinny, horrible-looking man dressed in old brown clothes with a scruffy-looking cat in his hands was standing and glaring at all of the students. "Has asked me to remind you all that the list of banned items has a few new additions and anyone that wants to view the list is welcome to view it on the door to his office. He has also asked me to remind you all that there is to be no magic performed in the school corridors."
"But this is a school for magic!" Hydrus said to Draco indignantly, the blonde looking almost upset as him.
"Now, we have a new addition to our staff this year, please join me in welcoming Professor Quirrell." Dumbledore gestured to a man wearing a purple suit along with a purple cape and turban. The man quickly stood up, looking absolutely terrified, he gave a short bow before immediately sitting back down, sitting next to a man that was dressed all in black with a big nose, greasy hair and a sneer on his face. Hydrus's hand came up to touch his scar before he had even realised it, he rubbed it slightly, feeling an odd tingle coming from it.
"That's our defence teacher?" Draco whispered to Daphne as Hydrus lowered his hand. "He looks terrified. What the hell is he going to teach?"
"Also," Dumbledore continued. "I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." He said in a casual voice, though the expression on his face was incredibly serious. "Seriously, don't go there."
"I'm sorry, I am attending a school and not a madhouse, right?" Daphne whispered to Hydrus and Draco. "Did he just say that we could die here?" She wasn't the only whispering as lots of students had begun doing the same amongst themselves.
"That's ridiculous!" Draco hissed. "I knew the man was mad but this is..." Draco trailed off, lost for words.
"Looks like the inmates are running the asylum," Hydrus muttered.
"And now, that will be all," Professor Dumbledore said. "Prefects, please escort your houses to their common rooms."
"Alright, first-year Slytherins, follow me," A brown-haired girl with a prefect's badge said as she stood up followed by a blonde-haired boy who also had a prefect's badge. The first years Slytherins all stood up and obediently followed after the pair of prefects. "Congratulations on making it to Slytherin," The girl said once they were out of the hall. "I am fifth-year prefect Gemma Farley, with me is the male prefect, Leroy Lemmings."
"Hey," Leroy grunted out a greeting.
"As you can see, he's a chatterbox," Gemma said dryly.
The pair of prefects lead the group through the castle, performing a small tour as they pointed out several interesting things while also giving them a basic rundown of how the castle worked. Some stairs moved, while other stairs were perfectly still. The majority of the doors were real, though sometimes you got some that weren't. Nearly every single painting was alive of course, which Hydrus suspected could end up being annoying. He hoped that they weren't going to be like some of the paintings he had met, like the one of his mother's aunt. Eventually, they arrived just outside of what looked to be a regular wall.
"If you look up," Gemma pointed upwards to a small green snake symbol at the top of the wall that would have been really hard to notice, especially in this dark corridor. "That symbol will help you find our common room, to get in you have to use a password. The password will change each month, remember it and remember that you can't give it to any students outside of Slytherin, nor can you invite anyone from other houses here."
"Potions," Leroy said to the wall, he turned to the other students as the wall started shifting to reveal the entrance to the common room. "That's your password for the month."
"Now, come on in," Gemma said, walking in followed by Leroy and the first years.
"Now, this is amazing!" Draco whispered to Hydrus was nodding in agreement as he looked around. The common room was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. This dungeon extended partway under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge thanks to the trio of large glass windows on the opposite end of the room that allowed them a view of the watery lake and several groups of fish swimming past them. The common room had lots of low-backed black and dark green leather sofas and dark wood furniture.
"Welcome to our common room," Gemma said, causing everyone to look at her. "It's mostly quite peaceful in here, you won't get much noise, the giant squid swims by sometimes if you're interested in knowing. Don't worry though, he's really quite friendly. Anyway, in Slytherin you will each be getting your own rooms. You are free to decorate the insides however you like, and nobody is allowed to enter other rooms without permission. In Slytherin house we have very few rules."
"Don't trespass in other people's rooms," Leroy said, reciting the list. "Outside of the common room we are to be united and always have each other's backs, any problems amongst Slytherin house will be settled in Slytherin house. No stealing other people's stuff as well, and that's pretty much it outside of the obvious stuff like don't murder."
"You're a right ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Gemma rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the first years. "Any questions?" She asked, she waited and when it appeared like nobody was going to say anything then she simply nodded her head and continued talking. "Great, then you can all head off to bed now, we'll be waking bright and early tomorrow at seven so we can give you a small tour before we escort you to breakfast. Boy's will be on the right side and girl's will be on the left." She said whilst gesturing to the doorway that lead to the bedrooms. "Right, goodnight."
The Slytherin first years all, without saying a word, made their way to their beds. The boys split from the girls and walked down a corridor where they found a hallway with doors on the right and on the left and one final door at the end.
"Hey," Draco said whilst pointing to the final door. "I bet that that door is the biggest room."
"Let's see," Hydrus said thoughtfully as he took out his wand. "Alohomora," His spell spread out, and every door there opened. Hydrus walked forwards, peaking his head into each room before he poked his head into the one at the end. "You know what, Draco," He said as he pulled his head back out. "You're right, this is the biggest one. With that being said, I claim dibs."
"You can't do that!" Draco protested.
"I just did, dibs were claimed Draco, you know the rules." Hydrus said apologetically.
"Shouldn't we discuss this?" Blaise spoke up.
"Here's how I reckon we should solve this," Hydrus hummed. "I'm going to claim this room now, and if anyone wants it then they're going to have to duel me for it."
"Oh come on," Theo groaned. "You're a duelling champion, that's hardly fair."
"Yeah, and it's not fair to blame me for being brilliant at something," Hydrus argued. "You don't go around saying to lions that they're too good at hunting, do you? Now, goodnight boys." He grinned before he walked into the room and closed the door behind him, locking it as well before he looked around. Opposite the door was a decently sized bed, to the right side of the bed was a large dark wooden cupboard for clothes while on the left side of the bed was a chair and a big desk. Behind the desk was a short window that allowed Hydrus another view of the lake while also shining a beautiful green light into the room.
Next to the door was a small brazier fitted to the wall, Hydrus tapped it with his wand, expecting it to light up but instead of it lighting up, a bright line shined down from the ceiling, pulling his gaze to the chandelier fitted to the centre of the ceiling.
"Hmm, this'll do." Hydrus said before an old looking house elf popped into the room.
"Name, sir?" The elf asked, holding a notepad.
"Hydrus Black," Hydrus answered and patiently waited as the old elf scanned the notepad for his name.
"Ah, one moment." The elf said before popping away, it popped back in seconds later with Hydrus's trunk and owl cage and placed it on the floor at the foot of his bed.
"Do you do this for all students?" Hydrus asked curiously.
"Only Ravenclaws and Slytherin's," The elf answered. "The other houses be sharing rooms."
"Ah," Hydrus nodded in understanding before he walked over to the trunk to confirm that it was his. "That will be all," Hydrus said once he was sure that the right trunk had been brought to him.
"Very well," The old elf nodded before popping away.
Once it was gone, Hydrus levitated his trunk up and placed it on his bed before he opened it to pull out a small black box and placed it on his bed. Hydrus let out a small hiss and the box opened, seconds later Rocky slithered out of the box and onto Hydrus's bed.
"How was your ride?" Hydrus hissed.
"Acceptably comfortable, where's the small companion?" Rocky whispered back.
"Right here," Hydrus replied as he tapped his trunk twice, a small chirping sound was heard before Bowie climbed out of it. "Hello buddy," Hydrus whispered as he picked up Bowie and held him in his hand. "Good trip?" He asked, Bowie let out a small squeak as he nodded his head. "That's good, now you'll need to stay in here, I'm not allowed to bring you here technically. Just stay here for tonight, tomorrow I'm going to go look around the school a bit and after that I'll be bringing you out whenever you need. Got it?" He asked Bowie, after the little green guy nodded his confirmation, Hydrus repeated his words in parseltongue for Rocky who also nodded his understanding.
Hydrus let out a small yawn as he walked down into the Slytherin common room, his school bag slung over one arm, he was apparently the first of his year to get up. He removed his wand and cast a spell to check the time, it was ten minutes to seven, meaning that the others weren't likely to come down for about another ten minutes.
"Ah, Mr Black," A voice called, Hydrus looked up to see Gemma and Leroy walking towards him. "Our new parselmouth." Gemma grinned.
"You have an old one?" Hydrus asked in a dry voice, raising an eyebrow. Leroy snorted with mild amusement while Gemma's grin got wider.
"I got to admit, ever since we heard that Hydrus Black was a parselmouth, we all guessed that you'd be in Slytherin." Gemma told him. "Especially after you won that duelling tournament. You'll be a great member of our house, I'd bet my badge on it."
"You had better study up on potions," Leroy warned him. "Professor Snape doesn't tolerate incompetence."
"I'm no potion's master but I know my way around a cauldron," Hydrus said confidently.
"Better hope that you do," Leroy said simply. "I'd watch your back, Black, plenty of people in Hogwarts will be gunning for you for one reason or the other."
"That'll be fun," Hydrus hummed thoughtfully.
"Kid, he's not just talking about people in your year," Gemma pointed out. "The upper years in Slytherin likely won't get involved but you might get even some fifth years going for you."
"That's fine," Hydrus said dismissively. "Then they won't have any excuses when I win."
"Well," Gemma paused and stared at Leroy. "At least he's confident."
"Say what you want, but the food here is pretty good," Hydrus said as he and the other Slytherin first years sat at their house table for breakfast.
"That's a relief considering that we'll be here for the next seven years," Theo commented after swallowing a spoonful of cereal.
"Hey look, Professor Snape is coming." Draco whispered, Hydrus followed the blonde boy's gaze and saw a man walking towards them. The man was the same unpleasant-looking person who had sat next to Quirrell yesterday, as he got closer Hydrus could see that he was even worse up close.
"I am Professor Snape, your head of house, these will be your timetables." Professor Snape said, not wasting any time before he started handing out the timetables until he handed the final sheet to Hydrus. "Ah, Mr Potter, our new celebrity."
"My name is Hydrus Black," Hydrus said in a tone that was barely kept in the 'polite' range.
"I do not for a moment think that taking a different name will make much difference regarding how you behave, besides it's hardly like the Blacks are deemed acceptable role models, are they?" Professor Snape asked snidely before turning and walking away without even a backwards glance.
"That miserable little prick," Hydrus growled. "Who the hell does he think he is?"
"He'll be our head of house for the next seven years," Draco reminded Hydrus, not looking particularly happy with the way that Professor Snape had spoke to him. "It's best to just keep your head down and get on his good side."
"He should make sure to stay away from my bad side." Hydrus muttered.