Answers to Reviews:
Immaterium [Chapter 2: I'm glad the story piqued your interest. It is indeed a bit strange, and I'm pleasantly surprised that there are people who have found it intriguing. Hopefully you've liked the rest as well.
aidabye77: Glad you have such a high opinion of this story! As to if Abraxas has interest in Marzan, I'm sure the answer is a bit obvious... We can definitely count on Marzan not being able to tell, however. He is very bright, but has no idea of how people work.
Chapter 11 Notes:
TW; small allusion to WWII near the end, and death mentioned according to said conflict. Myrtle's death is also vaguely mentioned.
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The group of young girls giggled and tried to be silent without success, looking out onto the mess that laid in the hallway.
"Young master, maybe you shouldn't" one of them said, still trying not to laugh.
She didn't get a response. Somewhere down the hallway there was an audible noise of things falling over and a string of curses in multiple different languages that had them turning red in an effort to stay stoic.
"MARZAN!"
The boy grinned and stood from his crouch, wiping his hands on his trousers, pushing them to move down the hallway.
"Quick, he's going to get here soon"
The servant girls burst out in laughter as they followed him running down the hallway, and they were still giggling even when the steward scolded them in the kitchens and assigned them extra chores. But even then they knew that the stern man in charge of the servants was fond of the young master— there hadn't been any children in the Dracul family for a long, long time and they were very happy for their master now that he and his husband had fulfilled their wish to have a child… regardless of how much of a menace said boy could be.
"What's all this about?"
The servants all scattered and ran out of the room to go about their chores and the steward could only rub his forehead, defeated, before he looked at Iraia.
"Apologies, sir, it's…"
"Your little demon" the master interrupted, coming into the kitchen with the teenager right by him, who wore an innocent little smile that fooled nobody "thought it would be an excellent idea to set every piece of the armoury in the hallway to recreate a battleground, and then run through it"
Iraia couldn't help but sigh affectionately as his husband made the boy sit on top of one of the counters, and he reached to pull at his cheek.
"One of these days you'll make poor Ladislau snap"
Marzan didn't have any decency to drop the innocent act, even as he was made to show his scraped knees— in hindsight, it definitely hadn't been the smartest idea to run in between so many chunks of armour.
"Nobody uses that wing of the fortress, and the visual helped for my assignment"
"Next time, maybe don't rally the servants to be your hechwomen" Elerhys huffed, shoving a layer of ointment on his knee with enough force to make him hiss. "I should've known it was a horrible idea to get you strategy lessons"
Well, the lessons weren't the problem, it was rather his approach to a hands-on learning. In his defense, he had been told he could go anywhere in the castle and use everything at his disposal whenever he wanted. To be honest, just a few months ago he could've never even thought of acting so carefree around anybody, but since being brought to live in the fortress permanently he had loosened on his attitude and felt he could be a bit more… genuine. Ever since the end of the tournament his life had changed drastically in nearly every single way— for starters, he had moved permanently into his bedroom in the fortress, and he was immediately started on all sorts of private lessons that any pureblood heir had received in their childhood, plus anything that Elerhys considered essential for a prince -he had forgotten the vampire was royalty-, and Iraia wanted him to a master of the six arts as most young men back in his homeland. He was, despite how little he liked to admit it, quite a bit of a nerd and he thrived in between having so many things to do to burn off his energy. He still received monthly visits from Ministry workers, he would for quite a while, but they had told him directly that they had noticed that he was much happier living there so he took that to mean he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
"Come on, it's almost time for dinner" Iraia shushed him off the table "Go clean up your mess"
"It's not a mess!" he called back as he left the kitchen.
Just to be a little dramatic, he enchanted the suits of armour to march down the hallway and out towards the armoury, to the delight of the servant girls that laughed as they saw them walk by… but he did put everything back where he found it. Well, except the book detailing the battle he had been trying to recreate, which he was still reading even as the first course of dinner was brought out to the table in the garden.
The little winged fae that lived in the property had taken it upon themselves to sit on top of his head and on the margins of the pages, fluttering around the table, but he had learnt to ignore them long ago as they took any sign of annoyance to mean they should do it even more. The sun hadn't come down entirely just yet, bathing the trees and grass with a gentle golden light, which made it a rather good spot to have dinner… before -last summer- they simply used one of the elegant dining rooms already existing in the fortress, but now it was simply more convenient to be outside, the reason being the giant beast basking in the sun behind his chair.
"Your book isn't going to erase itself while you have dinner" Iraia gently chastised him "You'll end up spilling food all over it"
Despite not being happy to pause his reading, he was still obedient enough to set his bookmark in place and close it to be set aside for later.
"Can I go for school shopping tomorrow?"
"So soon? There's still another month before the year starts"
"Marley Dovetail just published a new book of advanced potions" he could never have enough books, he had come to learn, even if he still had a gigantic library to go through "And also I just want to get out of the house"
"You would get out of the house more if not for the fact your familiar is way too big to fit in public spaces" Elerhys replied half sarcastically as he drank from his golden goblet, lounging back on his chair. "You can't go everywhere together, but you refuse to leave him alone"
"HanQiang is still adjusting to the modern world" he defended himself "and also I happen to be the only person capable of speaking to him"
"He's a millennia old dragon, not a pet you have to baby"
"Leave him be, they're both adjusting to their bond" Iraia sighed, flicking his partner's arm lightly. "And he just said he'd go out tomorrow, didn't he?"
Elerhys sighed, but abstained from pointing out that Iraia spoiled Marzan far too much. For his part, Marzan thought their little harmless arguments about it were incredibly amusing— Elerhys wasn't any less doting himself, to either of them, but he had a more aggressive way to go about it as if showing feeling was something he was allergic to. Which, considering Marzan himself was a liar by trade, fair. Besides, if Elerhys truly did not like Iraia's caring attitude, they wouldn't be so disgustingly in love— at least they weren't the type to do any public shows of affection.
"Master Dracul" Marzan looked up from his second course to see Ladislau stand next to the table, back perfectly straight as always. "There is a young woman here to see you"
Both Iraia and Marzan raised their brows, looking at Elerhys, who rolled his eyes and set his goblet back on the table.
"Did she say her name and why she's here?"
"No, sir. However—"
It turned out no explanation was needed, since they heard a voice call out; "Mircea!"
She soon came into view, and Marzan needed no explanation to know she was definitely a vampire as well, with her blood red eyes and sharp smile. She was pale, as many other vampires were, and her voluptuous figure was encased in a rather old style dress made of black lace and a corset so tight a grown man could easily circle her waist with both hands and leave no gaps between his fingers. Her hair was deep brown in natural waves that cascaded down her back and her makeup was a dark grey with a precise eyeliner wing and intense red lips.
"Oh! I didn't know you had guests. What a nice surprise" she said 'sweetly', smiling wide enough to showcase her fangs.
"Carmilla" Elerhys sighed -yet again-, and didn't seem any tense about her presence, and he addressed the both of them first. "This is one of my blood sisters. Carmilla, my husband and son"
Another elder vampire then. She gasped theatrically and leaned over the table to look at them.
"You got married!? When were you going to tell any of us!? And here we were so worried thinking you were still all alone in this huge castle…"
He looked at her unimpressed but she was already sitting down in the last free chair and reaching to toy with Iraia's hair, who let her be with a polite smile while he decided if she was a threat or not.
"What a beauty! If I were interested in men at all I'd be tempted to steal him from you" she let go of his hair and snatched a slice of bread from the tray on the table "why is there a dragon sleeping on your garden?"
Tom had to give it to her, she was good at never looking out of her comfort zone, if she ever was out of it to begin with.
"It's Marzan's familiar. Why are you here exactly?"
"What, I can't visit my eldest brother now? Come on, Mircea, I thought we were close"
"I go by Elerhys now"
"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to…" she looked at Marzan and leaned in to whisper loudly; "He's always been too good to hang out to any of us his lesser siblings"
"Because you were made and not born like him?" he asked innocently.
Carmilla burst out in laughter for the annoyance of Elerhys.
"So you do know the family tree! I didn't expect him to have told you"
"He didn't" Iraia helpfully informed, having relaxed a bit "Marzan read over all the family records on his very first day home"
"It was interesting" he quickly said.
"Ah, a smart kid!"
"A menace, you mean" Elerhys huffed.
But it was interesting, there was a reason vampires were the most beloved and recognisable creatures of myth. There was only ever one true origin, one original vampire, and that was Vlad Dracul of course. Elerhys -Mircea, although his birth name was rarely used- was his firstborn son and the only vampire to have been born naturally. Well— he did use to have siblings but none of them survived, not even the infamous Dracula who had been the second eldest. The rest of The Dragon's children were all turned by him, and none were related to one another. Regardless, all of them plus Elerhys made the seven elder vampires, nearly as strong as their father and considered true makers of chaos. Any vampires turned by them through their bite were called high vampires, with a considerably lesser amount of power, and those high vampires in turn could produce any normal baseline vampires who simply could not turn anybody even if they tried. The small little vampires at the bottom of the chain were what most people imagined when thinking of the word, weak to sunlight and relatively easy to kill with the right tools. If one went up a step, high vampires became more troublesome since they could shapeshift -although limited to a single different shape- and they could only be killed by burning their remains and then making sure said ashes were divided and buried as far away from each other as possible for the next ten years to prevent their revival for good. An elder vampire… well, nobody had yet managed to take any of them down (contrary to popular belief, it had been the seven siblings who put down Dracula as they considered him too dangerous, and he wasn't completely sure he was a hundred percent dead). The seven elder vampires could freely shapeshift and use magic, and they had a decent control over multiple mental arts, plus any particular abilities developed individually. As for The Dragon, he had retired from the world a long time ago and lived in isolation, presumably completely immortal.
"Alright then, do you know all of our names, little nephew?" she asked, leaning her chin on her palm.
"In order of age? Mircea II Dracul, the fallen Vlad Tepes or Dracula who should not be spoken of, Countess Mircalla Karnstein -that's you-, Barnabas Collins, Lestat de Lioncourt, Elias, Lord Edward Ruthven and Esmeralda—"
Carmilla was laughing again and Elerhys gestured to Ladislau, who bowed and promptly fetched a new goblet for her to drink from.
"I like the boy, where did you find him?"
"Don't let him fool you, I'm sure he already has a list of all your possible weaknesses"
"Why would I be worried about that?" she waved her hand.
"He has a dragon"
Carmilla paused, thinking about it for a split second.
"That's a good point. Hey kid, has this old man taught you anything about combat? Your aunt can give you a few lessons"
"Carmilla! He's a human, you can't—"
"I know, don't be so dramatic!"
Marzan let out a snort.
"Depends, can I have a real sword?"
Elerhys seemed like he wanted to smack his head on the table.
"That's it, you're not going to give him any more ideas—!"
As the siblings bickered Iraia rolled his eyes fondly and pushed another plate towards Marzan, who resumed his meal with the free entertainment provided. He really was glad he could be here now.
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He did go to Diagon Alley the next day to browse the newer selection of books and buy his school supplies while he was at it. Iraia had wanted to go with him but he was busy, so instead Azure dropped by the fortress and picked him up. Elerhys and Carmilla were nowhere to be seen, likely catching up for all the years they hadn't seen each other. Azure was, as always, good company and they had a very interesting debate about mathematics to test what he had been learning in his lessons, and he had promised with amusement that he would teach him to use a sword if anything just to mess with his twin.
Just out of curiousity he had also asked if it was possible to learn cultivation, the way the twins did magic, and was surprised that Azure didn't have a direct answer.
"Well, you're a bit too old to form a strong core but it's possible to do it in adulthood… the problem is that you already have a fully formed magical core" and he reached to tap Marzan's chest over his clothes. "We start very early to redirect our magic to our lower dantian, and form it here instead" and he tapped his torso at about where his navel was. "That way your meridians flow smooth and strong. It's unlikely you'd be able to master it, but I can teach you to meditate and adjust the flow of your magic… it's still a very useful skill. And swordsmanship works just the same without a spiritual weapon"
Well, it was sort of expected, but it was worth asking.
"How do you choose a spiritual weapon?" he asked as they walked through the lively alley.
Azure laughed.
"It doesn't work quite like that— most clans commission them to be made specifically to the wielder, but in the western regions further from the sea there is also a clan that has an entire hall of spiritual swords without owner, and you can only take the sword that has chosen you. Other spiritual weapons are inherited, it's not uncommon to hear someone carries their father or mother's, and others are family heirlooms passed down through generations. Our mother used to be the head disciple of a well renowned master, she could pay handsomely for one of the best smiths to make our swords"
"Is she not a cultivator anymore?"
"Not since we were born, although she did train us well before she sent us to her old master. I think she would be delighted to meet you, if gege and jiefu take you there sometime"
The book store was nearly empty and Tom didn't waste any time in making his way to his target area, where the newer books were displayed. A few students were shopping, but for the most part the store was deserted.
"That's strange" Azure made a comment, looking at the two girls that seemed just about age to graduate "a lot of children should be making their purchases already"
He looked up for a moment and then lowered his eyes back to the embossed leather of the tome in his hands.
"The war is getting worse, a lot of students won't make it back this year"
Azure sighed and sat down on an armchair not too far from him.
"I do suppose Grindelwald has been especially active later…"
Marzan had to bite his tongue to say that no, Grindelwald had absolutely nothing to do with Hogwarts' declining population. Most wizards were absolutely ignorant to the current state of the world, as magical communities in Europe chose to remain actively neutral and ignore muggles with a mindset of 'let them kill each other for all we care'. The Triwizard Tournament had been a prime example of how little they gave thought to muggles, having a grand celebration and having representatives from all over the globe to see three young boys try to survive deathly traps too advanced for their age… they had little care for their own even— nobody had talked about the fact Mahoutokoro hadn't sent anybody to Hogwarts, they had been in complete lockdown for close to a decade now; when Headmistress Hime saw the steady decline of their community she refused to stand by and let her students either die or be groomed to kill… she had taken in refugees, and closed the island to the world. The Magic Japanese Empire was one of few that actively saw themselves involved in the conflict taking place but they weren't the only ones, and the rest turned a blind eye. At most, their overconfidence on their safety only benefited Grindelwald in his delusional pursuit.
Back when Voldemort rose to power, he had been just as dramatic about his blood purity propaganda rooted in self worth issues and childhood trauma, but he had never even considered meddling with muggles. He was mad but not suicidal, he knew exactly what sort of things they were capable of… he had grown in between two huge wars that would completely change history.
"Yes, I imagine things will come to an end sooner rather than later" he answered neutrally instead, and put the book back on the shelf.
How long until Grindelwald fell? He didn't remember quite well, but he knew it would be within the next couple years. He wouldn't be surprised if suddenly they saw more activity from his followers in England.
For the time being, he thought it was best to not think much of it at all.
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As August rolled in Carmilla bid her goodbyes, promising to tell all their siblings about Elerhys' new family -much to his chagrin and Marzan's amusement-, and the preparations for the next year were done. Since professors usually returned to the school around that time to be there before the students, Marzan found himself being brought to Hogwarts a whole month earlier, although he stayed in Elerhys and Iraia's rooms instead of his dormitory. This worked well either way because headmaster Dippet wanted to make sure HanQiang would be comfortable and cause no trouble— the arrangement saw him being settled near the forbidden forest where he could hunt for food if he should feel like it, and where he would still be close to the school for Marzan to visit every day. Mostly they didn't see the other professors so he felt comfortable enough to walk around the castle aimlessly and spent as much time as he wanted in the library.
"Here, this is for you" Iraia put an envelope into his hand one night during dinner. It had the emblem of the school in the wax seal.
"What's it for?" he asked, confused.
"Open it"
Whatever would the school give him a letter instead of just calling him to— ah. He knew. He opened the envelope and took out the letter as well as a pin; the prefect's pin. He had completely forgotten about being a prefect! Sure, he used to be one when he was a child -became head boy too, in fact- but that was so long ago… it was to be expected however, since he was literally the best student the castle had ever seen, never been in trouble and having grades higher than Merlin himself. Not that Merlin's school grades were too high of a bar to pass… his fame came later in life, he was a lousy student. The achievement that made him feel prideful was the fact that he was completely erasing Dumbledore's current record.
"Ah" was all he could say for a second, twisting the pin between his fingers to see the light catch off of the polished silver surface. "Me? I imagined it would be Abraxas, he's always telling people what to do"
Iraia laughed despite himself and Azure, who was sitting opposite to his twin, echoed him with a bit more heart into it. Even Elerhys' lips quirked in amusement.
"He is a prefect too, you are not far off"
Marzan raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't prefects supposed to be split equally between male and female students?"
He was sure that was the case last time around… who was it that he shared the spot with? Violet Selwyn? Or was it Selina Mulciber?
"They are but Miss Prince, who was the most suitable for the role, rejected the position" Iraia explained with a sigh "Besides, due to the reduced amount of students in the castle, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have only one prefect girl respectively. Headmaster Dippet decided that he would select you and Mr. Malfoy to balance out the number of total prefects this year. And Mr. Malfoy is indeed completely suitable for the role"
Ah, that made an awful lot of sense… That meant that in total, they had only six prefects for their year but they were equally split with three girls and three boys.
"Who are the others?"
"Miss Ermentrude Smith from Hufflepuff, Miss Druella Rosier from Ravenclaw, and for Gryffindor Miss Minerva McGonagall and Mr. Charlus Potter"
McGonagall, huh? He couldn't say he had ever noticed her in the past five years but then again she kept to herself and her group of friends. They likely shared few classes together, as Slytherin was typically paired with Hufflepuff for the general classes, and he doubted she took the same extra credits he did. At first he even thought she was a year older but apparently he remembered wrong.
"This year will be very busy for you as well" Azure sighed, half looking like he was feeling pity and half like he was making fun of him. It was more or less how he always acted. "You'll have to study for your OWLs too"
Ugh… OWLs…
"Do I have to?"
Elerhys narrowed his eyes.
"What's that about? You always complain about the lack of a challenge that every single class is" he pointed out viciously "if you could, you'd likely want to have a test every day"
That wasn't far off from the truth. But it wasn't like Marzan was a teacher's pet that was obsessed with school— he did love acquiring new knowledge, but his determined obsession with overwhelming his schedule with more classes was rooted in the fact that he was bored out of his mind going through the same motions he did in his youth. If he didn't distract himself, he would go insane.
"The OWLs and NEWTs exist only for the Ministry to better control people and assign them into little boxes so they can be 'functioning members of society' and be compliant sheep" he grumbled, stabbing his food with his fork.
That sent Azure into another fit of laughter so hard he nearly fell off his chair.
"That's not what they're for—" Iraia tried to say.
"They want me to choose a career from now on from a selection of carefully curated options" he protested.
Well— sort of. The OWLs helped determine a possible future career because they signalled the end of the basic education. Sixth and seventh year were career oriented; you were only supposed to have classes that would cement the knowledge needed for said path. Right out of graduating, most students were ready to join the workforce by, you guessed it, either joining the Ministry or boosting the economy to work for businesses. A lot of said businesses required no further skills, and if they did they normally taught them directly to their new employees according to their own standards. If anybody wanted to follow a career separate from those, the next most popular option was an apprenticeship, for those small niches that couldn't be taught easily; one such thing was wand making for example— the problem was that it required the interested student to find a master of their own, and not all masters of their craft were available or willing to take in an apprentice, and if they did it was generally one at a time. If a graduate wanted to be an apprentice, they likely would do so only if they had it secured before they even left Hogwarts. The final option was be self taught in whatever discipline you wanted, most notably in that category being potions… potions masters could be entirely self taught if they had a strong and good base from their formative years; if you know how to properly identify ingredients and what effects they will have, you have everything you need to succeed. A good potions master could brew the exact same dittany with a dozen different recipes without any guidance if you gave them access to a good selection of ingredients, and their renown came from just how versatile they became. True potions masters were rare and far in between however, and while they were highly coveted everywhere, it was not easy at all to reach that level. Most starved and struggled to live while they studied.
"Then what do you want to do?" Iraia asked, helpless.
"Excellent question" Marzan swallowed a mouthful of rice "I have no idea"
Azure was wheezing, out of air. That looked painful, it couldn't be comfortable to laugh that much…
"When I was little I wanted to teach, but I could never do that" Tom Riddle had been an utter fool to believe he could've handled dealing with snotty brats day in and day out. If anything, the years he had spent travelling around proved that— a lightbult lit in his head. "… I want to hunt relics"
Iraia served a cup of tea and passed it to his twin, who was fanning his red face with his hand.
"Like an adventurer?" Elerhys asked, baffled.
"Yes? I just— I've been trying to find information for years about what happened to Salazar Slytherin and the lost relics of my house, as well as who he was, where he came from. So, what if I do that? I could do the same for hire"
It satisfied his endless pursuit of knowledge and gave him an outlet for the restless energy he had always possessed, and it was a wonderful way to avoid being in the public eye and not interact with too many people.
"It is… not a terrible idea" the vampire conceded. "Try to flesh it out more, you have until April to have something concrete. Someone from the Ministry's Educational Department will be here to advise students in their potential careers. It's likely Iraia won't be allowed to advice you as your Head of House due to conflict of interest, so it might be any other professor"
"Do I still have to—?"
"You still have to do your OWLs"
Marzan sunk onto his seat with a mumble about unfairness and Azure pat his shoulder in sympathy.
The final stretch of the summer passed by without much else to say about it. HanQiang took him on a flight around the mountains, which was undoubtedly cool but also terribly unadvisable to do since his scales were much more slippery than anticipated… at least he only fell down once they were over the lake, which meant he only received a light scolding and a bit of a cold shoulder by Rai, who hadn't been amused since he was tucked into his robes when said fall happened. Banned from flying again unless it was with a broomstick he resolved to going into the forbidden forest since his ban didn't mention anything about not seeing how HanQiang hunted his food— he proceeded to get banned from going anywhere with the dragon unless it was in the immediate vicinity of the school once he turned up covered in deer's blood. His reign of terror over the school came to an end on September 1st once the rest of the students came in, and he was back to being the perfectly behaved child that had earned the title of prefect, for the amusement of most professors.
The students were filing into the Great Hall and he made his way to the Slytherin table, waving at some of his housemates and exchanging pleasantries as he went.
"Marzan!"
Alphard threw himself on top of him and he thankfully was able to catch him in time with a laugh. Orion wasn't too far behind and they exchanged a less asphyxiating hug. Tiernan joined them soon after and Abraxas came in last, who was talking with Walburga as they approached, his prefect pin proudly displayed on his chest. Walburga herself was wearing a pin; she had been named head girl evidently.
"Congratulations" he told her as she kissed both his cheeks.
"I should say the same! We were so surprised when Abraxas turned up with his pin, we were so sure you'd get it… why didn't they choose one of the girls?"
"Eileen Prince didn't want the position" he explained as they sat in their favoured corner. Lucretia was nowhere to be seen yet. "Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff only have one girl prefect each, so headmaster Dippet chose two boys from Slytherin instead"
"They're getting smaller and smaller…" Alphard said quietly.
They all discreetly glanced over. Gryffindor had remained with numbers from the previous year and was still somewhat populated. Their own table was at normal capacity— that is, practically full. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff… well, half of their tables were completely deserted.
"Muggleborns keep dropping out" Abraxas cleverly pointed, leaning closer to Marzan to glance over Tiernan's shoulder. He looked at him after, taking that exchange of glances as his hello.
"They're dead" Marzan replied bluntly, and all three Black siblings and Tiernan visibly flinched. "Or they will be— graduating students are going to be drafted soon. Younger students have likely been sent away for safety, if they're still somehow alive"
"Drafted for what?" Orion asked.
"The war" Marzan looked at the silent children sitting in the other three tables, their eyes telling of what they were living at home. "Millions are dead already, it will be the deadliest war in history"
Judging by their shocked faces, they had absolutely no idea that there was a war out in the muggle world, just as he had predicted.
"They… are at war?" Alphard's eyes were wide and terrified, and he almost felt bad for bringing it up, if not for the fact he had kept it to himself for close to five years already.
"World War II started in 1939, the day we started our second year. In Little Hangleton there wasn't any real danger because it's small and isolated, but they came to draft any boys 18 and older. In London the children have been sent away to the countryside to whoever will take them in so that they have a chance to survive, but not everyone can escape the air raids. They drop bombs. The only way you can survive that is with luck or taking cover underground"
Orion looked sick to his stomach, pale and nearly green. Walburga had clenched her fists on her lap, clutching at her skirt. They didn't ask anymore and he didn't elaborate any further, which he was actually grateful for. While he had been lucky to survive the first time around, it wasn't like it had been easy; Wool's Orphanage had to evacuate at least once every summer that he returned and most nights he couldn't sleep well with the looming threat, or with the far away sounds of planes and explosions. It had been a very big reason for him to ask to stay in Hogwarts during the summer, not only for the constant abuse, but he was always refused by the then deputy headmaster Albus Dumbledore… he had found too late that the man was obviously not telling any other staff member about his concerns and pleas to stay, because now he was completely sure that the school would've immediately done something to help. Instead he had to survive through scarce rations and hope the orphanage would stand another night.
"You've frightened them" Abraxas told him later that night as they performed their duty of guiding their newly sorted first years to the common room.
"I couldn't not say anything. I've seen what it's like. They should be scared"
"None of us is ever going to see it"
"We all live in the same world" he pointed out, stopping in front of the wall and looking at his green eyes "even if we pretend we don't"
They stared at each other in silence for a moment before Abraxas spoke the password clear and loud enough for the little ones to hear, and the wall opened into their common room.
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The air between them was tense for a few days before everything slowly smoothed back into normalcy, although part of that was that Marzan caved into Abraxas' ask and apologised to them for saying what he did, even if he didn't really mean it. He also decided to not bring it up again just for peace's sake, and instead eased back into his classes and making sure no kids were bothering HanQiang into incinerating them.
And just like he remembered, being a prefect was a lot of work. They had been given a premade schedule of their patrols so thankfully they had to do no planning on their own, but the younger students were truly eager to get into trouble or do stupid stunts that meant he was constantly taking points from them and dragging them to Codde for detention. Not only that but somehow, now he was becoming way too popular for his liking… he had a dragon familiar and older students wanted to try and get close to said familiar by being nice to him, mostly out of harmless curiosity, and the younger students looked at him with starry eyes as if he was some sort of idol or hero, which— no thank you! Even worse, the girls from lower years blushed every time he so much as turned in their direction and he couldn't have a conversation with any of them without them spacing out even if he was scolding them for a dresscode violation (a lot of younger students had decided to rebel and accessorise their uniforms, which was not of his interest but the professors demanded they correct the behaviour if they spotted it). To his inmense horror, some of the third and fourth years were starting to bat their eyelashes up at him and tried to ask him for help with their homework.
His friends were, predictably, completely useless when it came to helping. Tiernan just burst out laughing at his misery, and Orion and Alphard both liked to tease him about it. Abraxas also didn't seem to care one bit that he was being swarmed by so many people, but at the very least he did seem to hate it when the girls tried to flirt with him and would bail him out whenever he could.
It was between all the silly girls that he ran across a very old acquaintance… a girl with huge glasses and horribly cut bangs who didn't have many friends; Myrtle Warren. Seeing her there, alive and breathing, unfortunately reminded him of all the horrible things he'd done and the people he'd killed in his pursuit of immortality… but it also did remind him of one little fact he had completely forgotten: the Chamber of Secrets existed and the goddamned basilisk was inside. And normally he indeed would not care, but there was a little detail… the chamber was the access to Salazar Slytherin's private study, and he certainly would do anything to go back in there.
Well. Maybe not anything, it was best to not get anyone killed if he could help it.
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* 瀚强 / HànQiáng / HanQiang / Hanqiang (all forms of writing it would be considered correct) means vast and strong.
* The vampire lore as I've establishes starts with Vlad Dracul, Vlad The Dragon. He was father to Vlad Tepes or Vlad Dracula, the man who would inspire Dracula. Mircea II Dracul was indeed a real person, the elder brother of Vlad Tepes. As for the other vampires, they are all very recognisable vampires from pop culture— Carmilla is a character from the book of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu, which was actually published before Bram Stoker's Dracula. Barnabas Collins is from the soap opera Dark Shadows, Lestat de Lioncourt from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Elias/Eli from John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let The Right One In, Lord Ruthven from John William Polidori's The Vampyre, and Esmeralda is better known as Santanico Pandemonium from the movie and series From Dusk Till Dawn. The order of age is a rough estimate according to when the stories themselves take place and/or the date of publishing if that information wasn't available. Elerhys is the eldest for about four hundred years, and there's about a century more between Carmilla and Barnabas, but he and the rest all from the 1800s, although Esmeralda is from the very end of the century. I recently read Let The Right One In and I can say is a wonderful novel that I cannot recommend enough, it is definitely worth the read and I deeply enjoyed it. Eli is probably my favourite on this list.
* The information on cultivation is loose and not quite deep since I am not well versed with the xianxia/wuxia genres, and we also have to account for the fact this is a modified version to suit the HP universe better. It is also worth noting that even within xianxia/wuxia there are multiple different cultivation mechanics, although all of them follow similar guidlines.
* 姐夫 / Jiěfu is the word for elder sister's husband. Chinese forms of address for family members change depending on age and gender, and this is a close approximation as to what Azure would call Elerhys given the circumstances, although he certainly could also adress him as 'ge' (elder brother), since this form of address is used broadly for men older than you regardless of familial bonds. Given his teasing nature, the first option's more likely.
* WWII was never addressed in canon except for vaguely during the Fantastic Beasts movies, and I don't think many people give much thought to the fact Tom Riddle grew up during it. Wool's Orphanage was in London, he definitely saw first hand what the war was like.
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And well—
Fifth year has started! Marzan has become increasingly popular and he hates it, lets see just how much it takes him to lose his mind again.
Thank you very much for reading, I shall be back (hopefully) soon.