Harry Potter | Hogwarts | Slytherin House

Characters (Players):

Black, Lesath (Cantation)
Black, Saiph (Cantation)
Du Toit, Lioslaith Myrall (Ghost Odist)
Du Toit, Lyall Mortimer (GhostOdist)
Hunter, Thomas (Cantation)
Johnson, Nesama Gabrielle (Renesmenea)
Lestrange, Casper (Nerochism)
Lestrange, Rosalie (LollipopLuxuryxo)
Lisburn, Ciaran Jack (Hisao)
Norris, Mrs. (Hisao)
Shade, Marilyn (iiEllaii)

(No last name:)

Chalice (MysteriousMasquerade)
Fae (FaeArwen)
Felix (FlexableWilly)
Jake (Nerochism)
Veronica (xSweetManiacx)

Casper had climbed up in the window above the two salon-chairs and sat leant against the wall, glancing up through the water at the sun. His head was leant back in a way that made his ice-white hair fall away from his face as the last gleams of sunlight found their way down to his seat, caressing his cheek. Apart from a couple cuddled up in the sofa at the entrance he was alone in the hall-room of slytherin, enjoying the peace for once. Silence was perfect for planning, and this late there was no-one around he had to fake a smile at. He loved this part of the day.

The door opened and a rather tall, pale skinned teenager entered. He wore his uniform in a careless way, his shirt not even decently buttoned and his tie wasn’t tied well. His face looked grim, obviously he was pissed. This guy was fairly known among the Slytherins. He was extremely skilled in the class of Black Arts, and he enjoyed messing with anyone he couldn’t stand. He threw an evil glance at the couple, who suddenly thought it time to go upstairs to their dorms. Thomas Hunter was a last-year student, commonly known as a genius. There wasn’t a course he wasn’t good at. Though nobody knew actually something about his personal life. Thomas walked to the green fire and sat down in front of it. He hadn’t even noticed the other person in the room.

He heard the couple whispering as they passed by him to their dorms shortly after the door opened and he couldn’t help grinning picking up Thomas Hunter’s name. He was quite aware of the effect he seemed to have on others. He himself seemed to drain people to him, always smiling and always with a helping hand ready if someone should be in need of one. Secretly he cursed most people in his mind, keeping record of every word, every mistake. Only a select member of the pureblood-slytherins knew how much he despised people, mud bloods in particular. Finally opening his eyes he glanced over at the male by the green flames, his green eyes matching the color of the fire at the edges. He then slid down from the window, leaving a low thump as his feet hit the ground. He then proceeded to pick up his shoes laying just beneath the window and glanced around for his black notebook. Despite the order he kept in his mind, he tended to lose track of items such as keys, pens and notebooks. He made a note to himself to make some sort of marking on them and started walking soundlessly through the room, his black cloak flagging behind him.

Despite the fact he was so quiet, Thomas noticed Casper passing through the room. He turned his head slightly in the direction where the sound came from – behind him – and threw a short glance at the other. He didn’t immediately recognize him, but after a short while he remembered that it was someone from his year. A quiet one, because the loud ones Thomas would remember. He himself was rather quiet during classes too, keeping low profile because he didn’t like getting too much attention. But no matter he tried, he was rather wanted by women nonetheless. He slowly blinked as the other was right behind him. “Shouldn’t you have been in the dorm already,” he remarked, not really asking it. He pulled his right leg closer to his body, his left hand on the floor and pushed himself up. As his length came to its right, Casper could see he was rather tall, but Casper himself didn’t differ much from his height. Thomas’ blonde hair was messier than the usual, and his green eyes looked rather dim. No matter how much he hid it, it was clear Thomas had had a busy day and he was tired. He didn’t even seem in the mood to scold Casper for being up so late. Thomas looked quietly into Casper’s eyes. “Well?” he then asked, impatient for an answer.

Having squatted down to search beneath the couches he slowly got back up on his feet and took a step back from the other male, not too keen on having his one meter radius of personal space invaded. He snorted at the others remark and let his eyes wander from the messy blonde hair down at his shoes and back up, locking his cold stare onto the other. His mouth twitched slightly and a reply lingered on his tongue. He remained silent however as he wasn’t interested in having this meeting being printed into the others memory. He enjoyed his silence far too much. Shifting his weight from his left foot to his right, he got an annoyed frown upon his face at the others impatience. “Excuse me, Hunter. I was just missing my notes for our homework. I was hoping I might find it here and finish it before class tomorrow. I will head to bed,” he said calmly, his eyes flicking over at the chairs below the window, finding his notebook. “There it is. Goodnight, Hunter,” he said and stepped over at the window and bent down picking it up.

Thomas rose an eyebrow. He didn’t know this fellow too well, but from the moment he spoke to someone, their name and face would remain printed inside his memory. He grabbed Casper’s wrist. “Homework?” he asked, apparently not believing what the other said. “That would surprise me. We don’t have anything due tomorrow.” He picked up the notebook and pushed it in Casper’s arms. Then, he let go of Casper. “Go ahead, go sleep,” he waved the other away. He seemed to be in a rather bad mood. Thomas turned around and walked back to the green fire. While doing so, he was mumbling to himself. The only things Casper could understand were ‘Snape’ and ‘fucker’. It wasn’t a fairly good sign Thomas would use those two words in one complaint to himself. He ran his hand through his hair and was staring into the fire. His hands formed fists as he kept on gazing more intense.

“Homework, indeed,” he said lowly and cast a long glance at the other, his eyes burning with anger. Of course he had no homework due to tomorrow, but then again it wasn’t that kind of homework he was referring to. Casper hadn’t needed to study ever since he started at Hogwarts, something he could thank his mothers’ teaching for. Clenching his hand around the tiny book he walked over at the stairs, and with a quick glance at Thomas he stepped behind them and through a secret passage- “Hannah Crinkle,” he smirked lowly for himself as he headed towards the Ravenclaw house. He had no intentions of being late.

As soon as the other had left the Slytherin house, Thomas got up. The past events of that day bothered him somewhat too much. He left the house and walked down the cold stairs. He could hear the other walking down the hallways, probably avoiding Filch. Thomas himself didn’t care to bump into that old bastard. With a slow twitch of his hand his body changed shape. Yes, it had taken him ages to find out how to become one, but eventually he had managed to become an Animagus. His animal form was a snake. He easily slid through the hallways unnoticed, then when he had reached his destination he changed back into his human form. For some reason, that Casper guy was still around. Not too close, but he could fetch the scent. Thomas sighed. Where was that Snape fucker when he needed him?

Eyes and ears attentive Casper suddenly took a right turn and slid in behind a bookshelf, his slim figure barely fitting. He stood still for a while, holding his breath, listening, and after a while he slid back out and continued down the hall before entering the broom cupboards at his right and carefully closing the door. “Hey, baby,” he murred as he closed it. Shortly after a green gleaming light came from beneath the door, followed by a scrambling sound as Casper fell over, knocking down several items from the shelves. The amulet around the girls neck had reflected a great amount of power, power which now searched for a new place to reside.

Thomas glanced as he saw the green light. He walked towards it carefully, not knowing yet what horrific fate would wait for him. He drew his wand and without speaking a word, he blew up half the wall which divided the two rooms from each other. As soon as he saw them both lying on the ground, the girl further away from him, he stepped forward. He bent over and grabbed Casper by his upper arm. Roughly he pulled him upwards, back on his feet. Then he let go of Casper and went to the girl. He kneeled next to her and checked upon her. “Dead,” he concluded. His voice didn’t show any sign of emotion. He wasn’t shocked she was dead. “You’re fucked,” he casually mentioned to Casper. “Go back to the house. I’ll take care of this.”

Casper suddenly realized he had been holding his breath and so he took a deep gasping breath, his eyes wide in shock at the situation. Confused he glanced from the girl, her amulet and then up at Thomas, contemplating whether he should make him out a threat or not. Putting the puzzle together shouldn’t be hard, and despite the common hatred towards mudbloods from the slytherin house, he doubted anyone would be willing to keep a murder secret, let alone more. Hannah wasn’t his first victim. His thinking left him standing still, his eyes flicking and his fingers nervously clenching around his wand- “Can I trust you?” –he asked silently, once again holding his breath.

“I suppose,” Thomas replied, glancing around. He swung his wand casually around, while the room restored itself back to its previous state. “With what anyway?” he asked when he was done. He turned to the girl and laid her down on a couch. He mumbled a few words as light flashed from his wand through the entire room. “Let’s go back,” he then said, grabbing Casper’s arm again and dragging him down the corridors, back to the Slytherin house. “For fuck’s sake, what have you done?” Thomas asked as soon as they got back. He pushed Casper against the wall, his eyes showing fury, yet something different, maybe concern, was there too. Deep inside, Thomas knew he cared. Not that he would have before, but something had changed.

“You suppo~ wait,” he hissed at Thomas as he got dragged along back to the Slytherin house and pushed up against the fall.- “I gotta’ go back. We can’t just leave her there,” he breathed, shifting in his grip nervously. “I can’t leave her there,” he corrected himself and pushed Thomas off him- “Get your filthy hands off of me,” the coldness in his voice could only be matched by his cold stare. With one last glare he rushed past Thomas, making sure they crashed by their shoulders roughly before heading towards the passage behind the stairs once again. “This mess-up needs cleaning. Bloody mudbloods,” he mumbled for himself.

Thomas rolled his eyes as the other slipped past him. “As I said, I’ll take care of it,” he hissed back. He didn’t make any attempt to prevent the other from going back, though. “You know what’s best for you,” he continued, brushing it off as if it was a matter that happened to him daily. “I don’t really care whether or not you thrust me.” He untied his emerald green tie and threw it on one of the couches in the Slytherin house. Then he dropped in it himself and put his hands behind his head. “But before you go, you might want to tell me what you wanted to tell me, because when you go back and they catch you I highly doubt you’ll get the chance to talk to me either way.”

He stopped and turned, his face a question. “Tell you? I wanted to… tell you something?” he asked confused, his left hand clenching slightly around his wand. Blinking hard he tried to remember what the other could’ve meant. “The girl… You want me to tell you why… Am I correct?” he said lowly, his eyes not meeting Thomas’. He felt uneasy looking him in the eyes. Realizing this he forced his glance up, annoyed at himself for wavering from his usual behavior.

Thomas tilted his head to the left as he threw a dim glance at the other. “I suppose,” he replied. “She was a mudblood, that much is clear. But even then, why would you?” He stood up again, walking back to Casper. His eyes easily caught the other’s gaze, piercing through the defense Casper was pulling up and as if he looked right into his soul. Thomas blinked slowly. “You’re sweating,” he suddenly noticed, a comment out of the blues that didn’t have to do with the subject at all. He wiped swiftly against the other’s cheek, without any further notice. “I covered up the corpse,” he continued “a few spells and even Snape wouldn’t recognize what happened to her. And they can’t possibly check all wands of the entire school. I hope nobody saw you or I would have to erase their mind, though.”

Casper flinched as the other wiped his cheek and he stepped back, his foot and back meeting the wall beside the stairs. He had never liked being touched beyond the formalities such as handshakes and hugs. “I hate them,” he said coldly in response. “The mudbloods,” he continued, even though he knew deep down that wasn’t the full reason. He had never really hated them.- “I’ve been taught so. I’m an angry person. I do something about it. Why the hell are you helping me” –he snarled, making a huge effort in trying to maintain a somewhat relaxed mask, positioning himself so that he leant against the wall. Somehow he felt like opening up to the other and the thought scared him, shattering the mask by showing in his eyes.

“Do you know?” Thomas asked sarcastically. “Now that didn’t occur to me, I thought you loved it to randomly kill people? What a surprise.” He rolled his eyes very obviously and walked towards the fire. He stared into it, then squatted down. The warmth felt nice on his pale skin. He leant backwards, supporting his body by placing the palms of his hands on the floor. “I know… people… who will cover it up,” he then said, looking back at the other. “There’s no need to worry about it anymore.” He glanced over at the other as he noticed Casper was slightly confused as to why he would aid him. “I don’t know why I would help you,” he said, shrugging slightly “I guess you’re one of the few I can actually stand.” A faint smile appeared on his face as he continued staring at the green fire. It reflected in his eyes, that for a change weren’t dim anymore.

Having gotten’ thoughtful, he didn’t catch up the sarcasm in Thomas’ voice- “Oh. Good. That it was… surprising.” –he said, haltering at each word. He then glanced up and walked over at the fire, standing next to Thomas for a while before sitting down, leaning his arms onto his knees and staring emptily ahead into the fire, his mind drifting off into deep thoughts- “Thank you.” –he said after a while, still staring into the green fire, his mind making each flame into a character as a small play took place, the flames bluffing up and dying out repeatedly.

The girl's dormitory for the second graders was too crowded with mind numbing magic tricks. Mortimer was jealous of the girls who could perform magic so easily. Sitting outside the door she waited for the popping sound of simple giggle spells to stop erranding into her ear drums, but the sweet decent of bliss never came and she decided to move downstairs. Her uniform was the basic one, with except that she wore a scarf around her neck and black used converse instead of the uniform mandatory shoes she was supposed to wear. The Tie was perfect, so was the shirt and the skirt, her brown hair was braided fown her left shoulder and bright blue, almost innocent, eyes claimed the light as she went past it. The torches flickered gently, the fourteen year old being a bit of a negative and callous soul towards all forms of life outside her own and her fellow slytherins. A couple of girls walked past her. Sixth Graders by the looks of their uniform. Scruffy, skirt pulled up high, breasts exposed and shown off. 'Oh... Look who it is! Mortimer du Toit! How's the dark arts class going my dear?!' she shrieked after her, the other laughed loudly. It was noted by Mortimer who they were and she continued down to the common room. A few people where hanging around there, but she eyes were drawn to two people who she'd heard a lot about. Thomas Hunter and... Casper; she only knew him as Casper. 'Oi! Second class! You're too young to be out this late! Go back to your dorm now.' The prefect marched over to Mortimer, but she just looked at him. 'One of the girls in my dorm say they through my books outside of the portal, I was just going to get it...' The chilling voice of an innocent sounding twelve year old who most knew was as cruel as her parents in prison.

Thomas stood up now, slowly, almost teasingly, yet the way he moved showed mercilessness and maybe even anger. He first looked at the floor as he walked slowly towards the two female sixth graders. He knew what kind of effect he had on sexual ripe women. He then turned his green eyes upwards, without moving his head, though, and threw a glare at them. It was something that was common in their family: their glares were as deadly as the Avada Kedava spell. As a broad, dangerous smile appeared on his pale face, he started looking like some wicked, insane and murderous person. The two girls would immediately rush to their bedrooms, not really knowing what exactly they had done wrong, because they didn’t know Thomas could actually care for such a weak child. Thomas rose his head, so his length came to its full right. That way, he looked down on everybody smaller than himself. He looked at the little girl, but he couldn’t find the energy to care too much. He turned towards the prefect and stared at him for a short while, a few seconds were enough. The prefect didn’t need to be told anything, as Thomas’ glare and reputation did enough already. He scooped out with a slightly frightened face and without any further comments on the little girl. “Go ahead, Mortimer,” Thomas said, nodding at the door “Go get your books back.”

Sighing deeply Casper turned his head, smiling warmly at the girl, his eyes sparkling with the same warmth. Getting up on his feet he walked over at Thomas and the girl and leant slightly forwards to be at the same eye-level as her- “If you’d like, I could come with you. The prefects won’t be bothering us further it seems.” –he said and glanced quickly up at Thomas before returning his warm gaze at the girl, his personality seeming a whole other than the nervous and cold boy from just a couple minutes ago. He had taken on the cheerfulness and charm he so often brought around the halls, having most liking him.- “Outside the portal you said?” –he asked, contemplating reaching her hand out for the girl. The level of maturity was so different at that age, he wondered if it would only offend the girl.

'Thank you, Master Hunter.' she whispered softly and bowed her head putting her hand over her heart. Rising to look at Casper she didn't give any smile back, simply because she was quite confused by their sudden kindness. It was well known among the Slytherin and the school in fact that Jemila and Ison du Toit's daughter had been rejected by all her wands and thus had none to use for magic, yet she still managed to perform quite well in her classes, but excelled everyone in her year at potions and other theory classes. 'Yes please...' she whispered and took Casper's hand walking towards the Portal. She wasn't afraid of other Slytherin's, or teachers, ghosts even, no what frightened her where the other houses, because they didn't look at her like she was worth their time, they acted like the slytherin's were supposed to act. Stepping into the hallway she let go of Casper's hand and looked around for her books. 'Oh no... she whispered as she spotted them hovering in the middle of the air. 'I'll never get them back now...

Thomas appeared behind them, and by the looks of it, he was rather tired. When he saw the books floating, he let out an annoyed, deep sigh. He pulled his wand without too much effort and only a slight swing with it would cause the books to drop to the floor carefully and order themselves in alphabetical order. He walked to them and picked them up, then to turn to the little girl and drop them into her arms without speaking a word. Then he stepped back into the Slytherin house. “If they do anything like that again, please warn me, Mortimer,” Thomas said. “I don’t appreciate such ridiculous behavior in our own house.” He didn’t explicitly mention, but he wouldn’t tolerate it towards any other house either. Thomas was, however nobody would think so, a kind hearted and warm personality. His mother had raised him with every single bit of love she could’ve given him, and he had never known his father. Therefore, his mother had given him her girl’s name: Hunter. Thomas hoped his father was dead. He must’ve been a wizard, that much he knew, but he disgusted him because he had forced his mother into some kind of relationship. He brushed the thoughts off. “It’s time to return to the dorms,” he said, making a nod in the right direction.

Casper couldn’t help grinning at Thomas’ bothered expression. With a small wink of his wand the books floated up from the girls hands and he took the girls hand so that they both held around his wand- “Shall we go?” –he asked and nodded in the same direction as Thomas, intending to push the books back by magic so the girl wouldn’t have to carry them. Stepping forwards to Thomas he reached out his hand and gave him a playful grin- “Join the chain of happy slytherins, Hunter. Tired doesn’t suit that handsome face of yours.” –he smirked and glanced back down at the girl, tugging gently at her hand and winking- “You think grumpy grandpa wants to join?” –he asked her and squeezed her hand lightly, his eyes still warm.

Mortimer stared in wonder as they so easily used their magic. Looking towards Thomas and Casper she smiled gentle at them both, even though Tomas could not see it. 'Thank you... Although I find it surprising that you help me. You two hold the reputation as generally prodigy Slytherins, Amazing in every aspect. I would've thought that they entailed you would also pick on me.' holding onto Casper's hand and a little of his sleeve she walked back into the common room and stared at her books they floated past her. She hadn't quite heard what Casper had asked her and she turned to look at him curiously, 'Grumpy grandpa join what?' Another older girl was standing by the staircase, Mortimer spotted her and dropped her gaze a little before scrambling to grab her books. She held onto them and looked towards the older boys again still a little confused by their kindness.

As soon as Thomas noticed there was – again – somebody down, although he had told them a thousand times before to get out in time, he got seriously pissed. Without warning, he stepped forward. His intentions weren’t clear at first, it only looked like he was going to give her a bad time by scolding her and probably scaring her to death. “You are quite persistent,” Thomas remarked, his voice very low and threatening. As he was speaking, an awful pain would climb up every little inch of the girl’s body, as if boiling oil was being slowly poured over her body. Thomas was a master in the Black Arts, and nonverbal spells were just something as easy as breathing to him. As the girl collapsed from pain – it would be a wonder if she already remained conscious – Thomas turned around to the other two. “You” he pointed to the little girl “up, bedtime.” Then he made a gesture at Casper. “Please drop her on the couch, will you.” Without saying anything else, he turned towards the dorms of the boys and walked up, as if nothing special happened and as ‘innocent’ as ever.

Watching the girls expression had the cheerful expression on his own face fade quickly, replacing it with an unreadable coldness. When the girl collapsed on the ground he closed his eyes shut for a brief moment, when he opened them the cheerfulness was back, as if nothing had happened.- “You heard him, Mortimer.” –he said and let go of the girls hand, giving her a gentle push forwards. Shortly after he stepped over at the girl having collapsed and squatted down next to her, brushing a strand of hair away from her face before lifting her up with ease and laying her gently down at the nearest couch, making sure to push a pillow up under her neck for support.- “Should do it” –he mumbled for himself and shot a long glance after Thomas as the other made his way up to the dorm. He stood still and leant his head back for a moment, letting a long sigh escape his lips before following him up and finding his bed beneath one of the large windows. He had requested to have a room alone, and his wish had been followed up on to his great appreciation. He sat down on the bed and started removing his shoes and his socks, enjoying the dim light from the moon.

Mortimer ran up to her room waving gratefully at the two older boys and pushed the door open to six sets of irritated eyes. 'You ruined the moment, du Toit.' one spat and picked up her wand giving it a sharp flick. The door shut behind Mortimer and she sighed a little. 'I haven't done anything to deserve this treatment, if you really don't like who you share a room with perhaps you should ask for a transfer.' moving over to the bed next to the window, the theoretically talented Witch opened her trunk and dropped her books into it, staring at the thousands of other books she'd borrowed from the library. In theory, a witch or wizard who's wand was not found at Olivander's, was in requirement to take the wand of another wizard who might've died as they took the wand from the shop. According to the letters from her Mother, she wasn't disappointed or angry that she didn't have a wand, more proud than ever because it meant she could now hown onto the powers of magic without a wand. It was a difficult task however, one that she'd tried several times while sneaking around at night. Mortimer's last attempt at this however had made her get caught and she'd been threatened with expulsion should she do it again. So she didn't. Sitting on her bed she ruffled her hair loose from its braid and lay down on the sheets, staring at the only window that led towards the grounds.

As the first students would get down from their dorms, Thomas was already in the common room. He was sitting on the couch, just reading some book. The girl he had tortured the day before was still lying on that same couch, too afraid to move. She indeed had woken up already, and her body ached both from the punishment she had received the day before and from lying in that same position all night long. Thomas looked up every time someone would come down, but then turned back to reading again. As the clock struck eight, exactly that moment he closed the book and stood up. He wore his uniform still in the same way, totally not neat. He went down to the great hall to eat.

Casper groaned waking up and walked the floor, opening the door and finding that everyone had left for breakfast already.- “Snakes.” –he grumbled and rushed back at his bed, tearing the white tee up over his scarred back and threw it onto his bed before pulling on his uniform, stressing around to find his second shoe. Shortly after he ran through the halls headed for the great hall, fixing his tie as he went. Reaching the hall he stopped and took a deep breath, shook his ice-white hair into place and stepped inside, quickly finding his spot among friends, greeting them all in a way saying “I-overslept-don’t-drag-attention”. Minutes later he turned his gaze over at the ravenclaw table in search for “his girl”, as if he had no idea she was missing- “Did any of you see Hannah coming in?” –he whispered lowly to his friends, all of them shaking their heads.

Mortimer stared at her drink intensely. There was a girl from the ravenclaw table next to her. They both stared intensely at the drink. The Ravenclaw girl blinked and leant close to Mortimer's ear, 'I don't think it's poisoned Morty... ' she whispered softly and reached out for the goblet. The juice jumped up out of the class and hovered over the two second years. Mortimer looked unimpressed and slightly irritated at the hovering liquid. Rising to her feet she lifted out the stick she used for a wand and pointed it at it. 'Do something?' she whispered and flicked the stick. The juice exploded onto some ravenclaw students and other slytherin students. Mortimer looked aghast. 'It worked! I did it! I made my magic work!!' her eyes show with some happiness until she realized that that people were staring. Sitting down she pulled her potions book out and stared at the pages not reading what it said, 'I'll go back to my table now... the Prefect is staring. I'll see you later okay, Morty?' Mortimer lifted her head and smiled, 'See you Kaya!' Reaching for a piece of bread Mortimer got frustrated as her hand missed it a couple times while she wasn't looking and in the end stood up and snatched it sharply holding onto it like it was the last piece of bread on earth.

As soon as people started noticing that someone went missing, Thomas stood up. He had finished eating already anyway. He was pretty much the first one to leave, and people stared at him since he once again stood out to the crowd. While passing by Casper, he conveniently poked him in the back with his wand without anyone else noticing. Then he passed behind Mortimer and put a hand on her back. He bent over, and whispered in her ear: “You’re far greater than anyone expects.” A little bit of support wouldn’t do much harm, or so he assumed. Thomas went back to the dungeon. A few minutes after he had disappeared from the Great Hall, professor Snape would subtly leave as well. Only a few would notice such coincidental behavior, except maybe some that already knew Thomas and Snape often quarreled. About what was still quite the mystery though. Some believed it was about Hunter’s marks, though others, more rational people, didn’t believe that because Thomas appeared to be an excellent student.

“I’m going looking for Hannah.” –Casper said lowly to his friends. He had heard the others whispering about a student gone missing, and pretending to just now put two and two together he had managed to let the color fade from his face, his eyes flacking with worry and his lips forming a straight line. He was quite the actor. Exiting the great hall he quickly made his way back to the dungeon, clenching his left hand around his wand nervously, a bad habit of his- “Snakes. Bloody snakes.” –he mumbled for himself and closed his eyes quickly before opening them, his worried expression now calm. He didn’t know what to expect and therefore not what role to play. A calm and unreadable one could easily display as shock, fear and simply calm in one. He wasn’t sure if Snape exiting right after Thomas had anything to do with anything, and the thought had him uneasy.

Mortimer was confused as she saw the two boys from the previous night disappearing. Her poisons book slipped from her hands and onto the floor, earning a loud clunk to be heard by a few people around her. Putting her bread down she reached for her bag and her book and rose to her feet; not bothering to eat any more breakfast. Running past a couple of people, a fourth Grade Hufflepuff boy grabbed her by the shoulder and frowned. 'Look I know you probably don't want to hear this from me, and seeing as though everyone is supposed to hate the Slytherin's, I'm going to help you out a little. Stay away from the two boys who just left, we all know your mother and father were Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff so how you got placed in Slytherin I don't know. All I'm saying is that you don't belong with those two, they're dangerous.' He stepped away after that and Mortimer blinked slightly, 'Well... what was weird.' she mumbled and began running again. Even though she'd been here a year before she still couldn't make heads or tails of the different classrooms or anything it was simply too difficult to remember all the passage ways. So she preferred to find her own way (get lost basically) so that she could remember where she went. Stopping down a narrow hallway she stared at the students who were clustered at the bottom of it. They were standing around someone who appeared to be a bit frightened. Walking towards them she froze instantly as one turned to her. 'Miss du Toit. Your classroom is in the other direction, Please go there now as class will start shortly.' Mortimer was silent, the girl they had in the middle looked horrified, 'Professor Quunt! Please stop this, I haven't done nothing to deserve it I swear sir!' she whispered loudly then pointed to Mortimer. 'She's someone for you sir, an orphaned- Get back here!' Mortimer had begun running the minute the girl had spoken. She'd recognized her as a mudblood. A girl who excelled in all her classes and had dared laugh at Mort when she asked if she was permitted to join the Quidditch team. 'Filth!' she screamed and vanished round the corner.

Thomas walked around the corner and almost bumped into Casper. He seemed annoyed, as his face looked grim and a frown was on his face. He didn’t say anything, but roughly pushed Casper aside as he walked off quite fast. Even his clothing looked worse than usual: his tie was completely loose and he had buttoned his shirt wrongly. What was the most odd about his appearance, was that he was holding his wand clinched tightly in his fist. He didn’t use it too often, and when he used it, it was in a rather serious situation. His hair was sticking to every side but the usual. Everybody that had to cross Thomas’ path, would rapidly move aside. Opposing a furious wizard was one thing, but opposing a furious Hunter was like kicking a sleeping dragon’s ass – not done. Thomas was known for his mood swings, though most often he controlled his emotions. As the little girl was running away in anger and frustration, she probably wasn’t paying attention to where she walked. It was quite possible she would bump into Thomas’ angry mood. He wouldn’t do harm on her, though, as he was too busy storming back to the dungeons.

“What-the…” –Casper mumbled and glanced after Thomas, wondering why the other was in such a bad mood.- “Oi, wait up!” –he called and started rushing after him, his steps a half leaping tempo. Casper had always made running look effortless- “Why such a bad mood?” –he asked catching up, his steps slightly quicker than Thomas’ as he was a tad smaller.- “Your mood-swings may get others off your back but I’m following you around ‘till I know what’s going on. How long that takes is entirely up to you,” he growled lowly, continuing to keep up with Thomas for a while before suddenly tugging him harshly to the side and pushing him up against the hallwall. “So. Answering my question now would spare both you and me some fine time. What’s going on – woah you look like shit man,” he gaped, first now noticing the clothing.

Staring wasn't a quality that Mort had obtained. In fact she rarely looked at someone more than two seconds before going back to whatever she was doing. So when she saw both Casper and Thomas heading towards her she couldn't care less, only when the apparent aggression in both their actions caught her eye did she stop to watch them both, slightly obscured by the pillar. The Ravenclaw girl Kaya stood at the other end of the T shaped all, both of them hidden by a pillar. “Morty... What are you doing standing there, we'll be late for defense against the dark arts!” she called quietly, not wanting to catch the attention for the two aggressive boys down the hall. 'Go. I... have to talk to somebody first.' she whispered harshly making a shoo-ing motion with her hands. In reality she was going to watch the two boys, (dare she call them friends?) and what they were doing, Thomas' attire had not gone unnoticed but to Mortimer it just looked like the Gryffindor couples who disappeared into the bathrooms.

Thomas only glared at Casper for a few seconds. His eyes were narrowed so you could barely see the green of his irises anymore. With a swift and quick movement, he swung his left arm down the other’s two arms, turned it upwards and wrapped it around Casper’s’ arms. This way, he had easily blocked his arm movements. Then, Thomas turned around, so he would end up standing next to Casper instead of being pressed against the wall. He pushed Casper so the other would now be backed up against the cold grey stones. He leaned in, his face dangerously close. All his movements had only last a few seconds. “Fuck off,” Thomas hissed in a low voice. He then let go of Casper, stepped a few steps back and turned around. As he walked off with a rather quick pace, he would tie his tie. Before Mort could run off, if she already tried to, Thomas passed her. He didn’t even look at her, though, as he was too occupied with himself. Yes, he had a giant ego. Thomas continued his way to the dungeons, not caring whether or not anybody was following him, calling him, talking to him, whatever. He just ignored everything around him and continued his route.

Casper leaned against the wall, slightly puzzled by the quick turn in positions. “Fuck off!” The words replayed in his mind and the puzzled expression on his face quickly turned into an angry frown. “You bloody hell fuck off,” he growled in his throat and turned swiftly towards the wall and through his left hand fisted into the wall, his face instantly turning into a pained expression and he started swearing, shaking his hand and groaning, his other hand clamping around the wounded hand. He then caught sight of Mortimer and he managed a wage smile, the color slowly draining from his face. He then straightened himself up, and with every drop of self-control he forced on a relaxed smiled and headed for the dungeons in a calm walk, his hand swelling up as he walked down the hall “Snakes,” he muttered silently for himself, having plenty of experience with broken bones already.

“I know you don't care. So there's no need to hold a false smile to satisfy your opinion that no one knows how cold and cruel you really are. Not that it bothers me, you stand up for pure bloods; it makes me happy. But just because I am a child doesn't mean to have to treat me as one...” walking towards Casper she took his hand and examined it slowly, her whiteish blue eyes survaying the minor damage to it. “Hold still.” Bending down into her bag she pulled out a small vial, sharply pulling the hurt limb towards her she popped the vial open and let four or five drops of the silvery metallic liquid onto his hand. “That should do it,” she whispered and closed the vial again putting it back into her bag. “What was bothering him, do you know?”

Thomas stepped through the door that lead to the Slytherin House. He didn’t walk straight anymore, his vision was slightly blurred by his raging mind. The thoughts that were crossing it going from A to Z and back again. His chest was aching with the sorrows inside his head. He stumbled to the green fire and dropped on his knees in front of it, staring into the flames. He was sitting like that for a few minutes, barely blinking and breathing shallowly. “Fuck…” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” As he called out that last word, the green flames would suddenly burst out the fire, then to return to their previous height. Dim figures were dancing in front of his eyes. Figures of his mother, his father, Snape, He Who Must Not Be Named – Voldemort. Thomas wasn’t afraid of him. Not at all, even. He didn’t envy him, though many Slytherins did. “Quit trying,” he mumbled to one of the figures. “I’m not going to give in.”

Casper stood still and watched Mortimer tend to his hand, his mouth twitching quickly as the metallic liquid sank into his skin, the effect immediate. His hand had gotten numb and he could no longer feel the pain. Her words kept repeating in his mind, and he wondered when she had noticed his fake appearance, how, and why she didn’t care. “I… How do you know what I am like, Mortimer?” he asked, his voice flat. “When did you…” he stopped the sentence midways, his eyes flaring open as a burning vision came to his mind; a woman, a man, Snape and Tom Riddle. He had frozen every movement and he was sweating, his mind occupied with the vision that wasn’t his own. Backing so he hit the wall he let himself slide down against it, his lips parted and his pacific-green eyes staring shocked ahead.

Mortimer wasn't worried. People in Hogwarts always acted strangely. 'Everyone knows that my parents are both in Azkaban. My father, David du Toit, a Gifted charms caster from Hufflepuff and my mother, Julie Mortimer du Toit, a promising dark arts and defence witch from Ravenclaw. They held fake minds thought-out their school years. Seven years apart they were, My mother met my father when she was in the seventh year and him in his first. I was born in Azkaban. Of cause I know what you're like, it like reading the potions book for the sixth graders!' Mortimer was slightly offended by Casper's comment, in fact she even took the second to kick his leg before standing over him completely disdained. 'Casper?' she poked him slightly with her stick before getting to her knees and putting her fingers against his neck.

Thomas put the palms of his hands on the soft rug beneath him. He was breathing more heavily again, sweat dripping off from his forehead down his cheeks, then to finally reach his chin and drip to the floor. Thomas closed his eyes. One little effort. He pushed his body up, carrying his own weight with his hands. With a sigh he returned to his full height. He was calming down now, finally. He arranged his clothing, rushed his hand through his hair – mysteriously enough, that was all he had to do to put it back to normal. He went upstairs for a bit, to take the right books, put them in his bag and left the dungeons again. He had a class to attend to. Lotion-class, as he liked to name it for himself, with his most favorite professor Snape. Maybe Snape should create a hairlotion, Thomas remarked to himself. He grinned by the thought.

Casper flinched, his head turning slowly towards Mortimer as she tried getting his attention, his eyes still fixated at some spot straight ahead- “Hmm?” –he asked, and then he once again was lost in the stream of consciousness that wasn’t his own- “Mmfhh.” –he suddenly grinned, the thought of a Snape hairlotion ‘causing him to laugh wholeheartedly, a sound that rarely left his mouth. Seconds later he was back, blinking at Mortimer- “You were saying?” –he asked, getting back up on his feet- “Don’t you have class? I know I do.” –he smiled and gave her a quick hug, suddenly in a very good mood. He then proceeded to towards the Slytherin room to fetch his books, the thought of Snape now bringing a foolish grin upon his face. He doubted he’d manage staying serious in class.

Fae pulled her cloak to her body tightly as she walked through the halls of Hogwarts. Her thick black and red dreads seemed to catch others off guard as they stared at her with wide eyes. She only gave them dark glares back as she made her way to the Slytherin common room. That was the only thing she was happy about today, she had been placed in Slytherin, the one house she was dying to be a part of, though she knew she would get in. A flash of fear came over her as she walked in, frightened about being alone, not knowing anyone yet. She looked around with wide eyes as she took a seat on a black leathered couch, hopefully far away from the other students. She wore the regular student clothes, with the colors of green, silver, and black of course. Her shoes were knee-high laced green converse with black laces, which stood out about her as she pulled her legs up her body, placing a tattered book on her knees. She slowly opened it as she began scribbling in the small journal, her bright blue eyes twitching slightly.

Casper entered the Slytherin common room and rushed right past the girl in the leather-couch. Normally he would be the one to stop and greet a new student, but he was late for class and stressed about the visions he had just seen. Sprinting up the stairs he entered his room and scanned it, making sure everything was in its’ right order. He grabbed his books and took a long glance in the mirror, his hand automatically fixing a strain of hair that had fallen in the wrong place, and dried some sweat off his forehead with his shirt- “I sure need some cleaning.” –he groaned and rushed back down the stairs, making enough time to stop at the leather couch, his tall slender body towering over the sitting girl. He flashed a friendly smile at her and extended out his hand to hers. “Welcome to Slytherin, Fae.” –he said. Casper always knew who the new students were.

Fae looked up to see a boy run into the room, her eyes quickly averting back to her book. She was just about done when the boy appeared before her, extending his hand out. She gave a weak smile as she held out her hand, her black lipstick glistening in the dim light. "Nice to meet you... I'm sorry, what's your name?" She had a thick Romanian accent, showing what school she had come from. Her eyes looked back down to her book as she continued to scribble the last note, readying herself to get to class, though she had no books. She had already bought them, but thought it useless to lug them around everywhere.

“I’m sorry. I’m Casper,” he grinned, dwelling on mentioning his last name. “Casper Lestrange,” he shrugged and let go of her hand, his pacific green eyes locked onto her face to read her facial expression. “I have to head to class, I’m sure I’ll see you around,” he said and stepped back, giving her a friendly smile before heading out and to the classroom. Entering, he realized they had just started, and so he locked the door as silently as he could. “It pleases me to see you decided to join after all, Lestrange.” Snapes’ voice silenced the classroom and Casper turned slowly, an excusing smile already in place. “Pardon me, professor Snape. I had forgotten my book and ran into a new transfer-student.” “Hm,” Snape replied and gave a quick nod towards Casper’s’ spot. Casper instantly sat down, his eyes flicking quickly over at Hunter.

Thomas noticed Casper’s eyes checking him. A playful, faint smile appeared on his face. He was sitting in the back, as usual, mixing potions already. As he was continuing brewing his potion, he was grinning quite a bit, as if he was enjoying the class for a change. Normally he disliked Snape’s classes, so it was rather odd he was smiling. As the class was nearly ending, Snape would make his round to control each potion and comment harshly on those the Gryffindors had created. At last, he would arrive at Thomas potion. Snape bent over it and his eyes narrowed. “Hunter,” he asked, his voice cold as ice “What is this supposed to be?” The liquid in Thomas’ cauldron wasn’t as their potion-objective was supposed to look like. It smelled rather fine and had a light purple color. Thomas looked up, and with a straight face he replied: “It’s hair lotion, sir. I assumed you might like that as a gift.” With these words, he took his books and left the classroom, leaving everyone inside startled.

Casper turned gaping at Thomas as he heard “hair lotion”, his eyes wide. He had stood up to leave class, but watching Snape’s expression and Thomas as he left the classroom he dumped back on his chair, rubbing his temples gently with his fingers. Nothing seemed to make sense today.- “Holy snakes, did you see Snape’s expression?” one of his friends hissed lowly at him, choking their laughter. “I did… For the second time today,” he mumbled, low enough that the other couldn’t hear “Yes. I did,” he grinned, back in his role. “I gotta’ pick up some books,” he said excusingly and headed back to the Slytherin common room, passing straight through it to his room before falling back on his bed, his eyes locked at the ceiling. He then closed his eyes and drifted off, having forgotten about the promise he made to himself about cleaning up.

“You... are Late!” the man at the head of the class rawred as Mortimer du Toit tiptoed in and stared at the only seat available. None of the second years really liked the Defense against the dark arts teacher, which was fine since he didn't like them either. This werewolf seemed to be a temperate creature. “Sorry, professor!” she said loudly and ran to the only available desk. Pulling her book out she looked at the Hufflepuff boys’ page and opened it up on the same page, getting ready for the grief she always went through in this class, when waving her stick. The professor was not impressed however, and pointed his wand at her. “I want you to repeat the three spells on that page. Filthy little rotters like you are useless if you can't use your wand you know!” Mortimer's expression was that of pure distress as she saw the spells he wanted her to use. “But sir, I can't-” she stopped mid sentence and blinked at her sudden realization, “Sir... Magic performed by hand is weaker, yes?” the people in the class started to murmer, and as this began Mortimer pulled four or five cherry bombs out of her bag, somehow able to make them all start to fizzle. “That's correct, why you going to use that magic now?” Mortimer smiled lightly and pulled her book back into her back a little clumsily. “I already have sir.” dropping the cherry bombs around the room she heard the loud crackles and sprinted while the teacher was left trying to help the distressed students in his class. Mortimer was quick on her feet and she was far from the Defense against the dark arts class room when she finally stopped. Looking out the window she stared longingly at the Quidditch pitch that stretched far from the grounds, “Wish I was old enough to join the team...” sitting down by the windowsill she dropped her bag on the floor and pulled out the potions book, completely indulging herself into the many ingredients involved in the different processes.

Thomas returned to the Slytherin House, still a faint grin on his face. He had loved the look on Snape’s face. He was humming the school’s cantation. He passed by the little Mortimer, who was sitting in the windowsill. He stood still for a bit, his smile disappearing. Then he walked towards her. “Something the matter, little Mort?” he asked, his voice sweet as sugar – which was probably suspicious. He threw a glance through the window. The Quidditch pitch? “Why’re you watching…” He didn’t finish his sentence. “Would you like me to go to the Quidditch pitch with you some day?” Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed the girl’s hand and dragged her along with him. He snatched her bag from the ground and tugged her along to the Slytherin House. He shoved her inside, almost pushing her to the floor. Apparently, he was in a very good mood. He went to the dorms for a while and came back with his broom. “Here,” he said, pushing the broom in her arms. “I got my old one as a spare, so let’s get off to the field.” He grabbed her hand again and dragged her off. “It’s not like anyone will stop us,” he winked at her.

Fae stared down at her writing, the scratched font illegible to anyone but herself. She closed the tattered old book slowly before sighing heavily. She missed Romania, her friends there... But it had been her own fault for being kicked out and transferred to Hogwarts. She stood from the leather couch as she slowly dragged her legs up to the girl's room as she looked over to her bed, walking over and grabbing her books. She had already missed one of her classes, she wasn't going to miss a second. She quickly walked out of the common room, her eyes gazing into the distance as she walked the hallways, bumping into students here and there but paying them no mind. As she reached the divination room, she quickly sat in the back of the class, being the first student there, not even the teacher was in the room. As she sat, she placed her books on the table, resting her chin on it as she looked into the crystal ball, at first only seeing her own upside down reflection. As she stared more, her eyes started to gaze over and she saw an image of a rose wilting into black rot. She shook her head and looked up as students started to fill the room, sitting up and composing herself again.

Casper was dreaming. He was in a tiny, dirty apartment with only a stripe of light to play in. Reaching the small child-hand out towards the cars, he made them move over the floor, back and forth, back and forth. He heard a crack and the four year old boy pounced forwards, grabbing his two cars and crawled hurriedly in under the table, hugging his knees tightly. Shortly after the laughter of Bellatrix Lestrange filled the room as she and a couple friends came in. “Casper,” Bellatrix called, her voice now annoyed and he clenched around his knees tighter, wishing he wasn’t there. His mother quickly dragged him out and brushed off some dust from his shoulder. “What is a magicians most important spell?” she asked, her eyes digging into his shoulders. “I… I don’t…” Bellatrix interrupted him: “Answer me, you filth!” Casper shivered in her grip “E-evada Kedavra” he whispered faintly and got pushed to the floor, the others laughing at him and Bellatrix raised her wand. Casper woke, bathing in sweat, his eyes wide in fear. He hugged his knees tightly as salty tears found their way down his cheeks and sat still, emptying his mind.

Mortimer was surprised. “I- but Thomas, I'm not old enough to be on the Quidditch pitch!” She stumbled after him clinging to the broom he'd given her. She'd always loved Quidditch, she'd watch it while in the orphanage and all the other children were playing with their magic that they could do. She'd beg to be taken to the Quidditch world cup, and pray beyond praying that someone would let her go see a match. When she visited her parents in Azkaban, telling them that she was going to Hogwarts and she'd join the Quidditch team they'd encouraged her to do so, they'd told her to make them proud. “I'm not going to be witch or wizard that changes the world, you know. I'm going to join the Quidditch team and win the world cup.” It was very random on her part, but since she was hopeless in all sort of magic she might as well dream about something that might be possible. “My first name isn't Mortimer by the way...” she whispered hoping Thomas didn't quite hear her words.

Thomas didn’t immediately react to what she said. He had heard it, yes, but at the moment, teaching the girl how to fly was of more importance. Thomas was good at flying, though he wasn’t the best. He didn’t like being on heights too much – not that he was afraid, but he just preferred standing on the ground. He summed a ball and kicked it towards Mortimer. It wasn’t a Quidditch ball, though, just a normal football. He would play for a while with the girl, as long as she wanted, but after that he took her back to the Slytherin House. He didn’t have much classes that day, and he preferred hanging around the castle. When they were on their way back to the house, he turned to Mortimer. “By the way,” he started “What’s your full name, then?” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in his embrace. He was a loving person, though few people had the honor to be loved.

As the professor droned on about 'broadening the mind,' Fae found herself drooling on the table, her light sleep interrupted by the sound of Trelaney's voice. "Fae! My child! Have you reached the beyond?!" Fae looked over to the crystal ball and shrugged. "Yeah... sure... why not?" The students snickered around her, as she closed her eyes once more, soon to be shaken by Trelawney's hand. "I can feel you're aura pulsing around us, please... tell us what you see, young one." She gestured to the ball and Fae reluctantly sat up straight as she lazily looked into the clear sphere, a smirk coming to her face and quickly disappearing. She grabbed at her heart, her free hand grabbing Trelawney's. "I see danger...!" She whispered, mocking the professor's voice. "A whole hour wasted, staring blankly into a glass ball..." She looked over to her as she rolled her eyes, letting her head fall to the table. After the class had gotten over with, Fae sluggishly walked out, being the last one to the door. She looked out onto the grounds as she passed by, changing her course to go to the library, feeling a bit down about the classes she had. As she entered the library, she immediately went to a quiet corner, pulling out a book about curses, hexes and jinxes, burying her nose into it as she attempted to stray away from the other students, the library being full of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, a few Gryffindors. She was starting to think she was the only Slytherin there as the girls that passed gave her curious looks.

She smiled. She was tired after playing so much on the brooms, not to mention she'd loved every moment of the soaring feeling, flying... “By the way, what's your full name, then?” She looked at Thomas. “My parents weren't allowed to name me, so in reality I was a number, 1480 Mortimer du Toit, I got my mother's maiden name and my father's last name. And the number being the number of wizarding orphans born in Azkaban over the last centuries. But one day my mother and father both sent letters, along with other prisoners asking for my official name to be Fay, like after the witch in the Arthur legend, Morgan le Fay. The Wizarding government accepted this so my name became Fay Mortimer du Toit, but since Hogwarts already had me registered as 1480 Mortimer du Toit that's what I'm called by everyone, to most teachers and to the headmaster... I'm just a number another orphan that they released from prison. Strange isn't it?” Her face was dirty, so was her hair. The uniform was messy, socks not quick pulled her. As they returned to the common room people started to stare, but she took no notice of this and kept talking to Thomas, “People called me Mort Fay for fun during my first year here, Death Fairy it means. They thought it was cute since I couldn't use much magic but I was dangerous all the same. Those people were kicked out last year however, arrested and put into Azkaban for being death eaters. It's odd.” She went silent now and watched Thomas carefully, wondering if she'd made the right decision in telling him.

Thomas stopped Mort from continuing her way. “Mort Fay, hm?” he asked “That’s pretty cute indeed.” He arranged her clothes a little more, ran his hand through her hair so it would look a little better. He then took her hand again and continued their road back to the house. When they arrived there, he face-palmed. “Fuck,” he muttered, suddenly getting an idea. “I still have things to do. I need to get to the library. “You can come if you wish.” He threw the brooms on his bed and turned around. He ran through the cold halls, all the way to the library. His long legs could carry him easily, and he was faster than Mortimer. He didn’t mind leaving her behind though, he knew she could find the way to the library on her own. He would only gain five minutes of time by running, but he probably didn’t need any more time. He ran into the library, not caring whether or not he pushed anyone aside. As the librarian wanted to stop him, he swung his wand only one time. To anyone present, Thomas would’ve disappeared. He was a master sorcerer, and that came in handy at any time. He jumped up, running over tables and jumping from one to another. He might be invisible, he still wasn’t a ghost. He slipped through all people, blockades, … Nobody was able to stop him. Then he stopped running. He had arrived at the prohibited section of the library. Perfect. Here, he would find what he was looking for. People were now looking for him, though. He had made a ruckus at the library. Maybe not the best idea, yet it was the fastest. He dematerialized the door – a hard, yet great piece of magical performance –and walked through it, slowly. This kind of black arts needed to take its time. He snuck through the bookshelves, looking for a particular book. Eventually he found it, took it out and flinched to the right page. There it was. He had found what he had been looking for. Though there was barely enough information. But on the other hand, he hadn’t expected finding much. Black arts of this kind were far too dangerous to be just available in a school library, even in the prohibited section.

Fae looked up as she heard a commotion, standing to look around a book shelf when a gust of wind blew past her. She jumped back a bit and looked the direction it went, but saw nothing. She sighed and walked back to her corner, picking up her book again as she read through the book she had drowned herself in. She picked up her crooked, yet smooth wad, flicking it in the air as she read, murmuring the words under her breath. She gasped as a light shot from the tip, hitting a kid in the face. She looked into her book to see what she had just done, her finger still on the stinging jinx. She laughed lightly but quickly got up, slowly walking out of her corner and to the other side of the library as the librarian ran to the injured student, trying to figure out what was going on. Fae sat down at a table near the other side of the library, opening her book once more but keeping her wand in her pocket. She rested her cheek on the back of her hand as she read, finding it strange that so much commotion was going on in the library that day.

Casper eventually peeked up from his knees, once again calm. With a swift wave of his wand he had changed clothes and was perfectly clean, his hair somewhat messy still. “This’ll do,” he said and took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Opening them he met a wide grin in the mirror and he nodded approvingly at himself before putting his wand back in his pocket. He passed through the common room without as much as a glance at the other students and headed for the main-door. He was feeling like a trip into the woods, and it wasn’t all too late yet. “Visiting Hagrid!” he shouted running past a prefect on his way out, his grin getting wider as he got closer to the woods. “Sorry Hagrid, but I’m going spiderhunting,” he smirked as he walked past Hagrids’ hut and continued into the forbidden forest.

Thomas put back the book where he had found, but did so very slowly. Dark magic. Required killing. Killing. It was spooking through his mind, following him like a shadow. Casper? He could barely believe it. Yet… He couldn’t keep denying it for himself. Casper hated mudbloods. His mother did. His father did. Almost all Slytherin did. But not Thomas. Thomas walked out of the prohibited district of the library, once again visible. He looked more pale though, and he was ignoring the scolding of the librarian. His mind was too occupied. He needed to get that green amulet that Casper had shown him after he had killed Hannah Crinkle. He left the library, gazing in the distance and barely noticing Mortimer – who probably would have arrived at the library by then. “Where’s Casper,” he blankly asked, his question more a phrase than a question. His eyes were empty. For some reason, he still didn’t hate the boy. Yet, what Casper had done was awful. Killing was already awful, but killing for a reason like that was even beyond awful.

Mortimer didn't follow Thomas. In fact she was so stupid that she went back to his room and took the broom she'd used. Just as she was about to leave however... she stopped. “He won't notice... if I just fly around the castle real quick with it.” she mumbled and grabbed his broom running quickly out of the room. “Stop! Where are you going? Second years are not permitted to-” the prefect froze as Mortimer stopped quickly and snapped her fingers mumbling: “Stupefy...” under her breath. The prefect fell and she smirked coldly at the rest of the people in the common room; they were all pale and scared looking. “You should see me do the Cruciatus Curse, it's so much more satisfying knowing it's your fingers and not the wand that does the work.” She disappeared through the portal hole and ran down the hall. This was how it felt to be a witch, she thought hungrily and jumped and the broom, shooting through the halls and zigzaging before finally pointing her finger at a window much like a gun and smirked, “Reducto...” she said and giggled happily as the window broke to pieces allowing her free passage into the open air of the cold autumn evening, the storm clouds rolling above her.

Fae quickly shut the book she had been reading, becoming bored with it already. She sighed as she lazily looked about the library, her eyes catching many odd stares and glances. She scoffed as she rolled her eyes, grabbing her books and quickly walking out of the room. As she made her way down the hallway, her eyes were caught staring at the Forbidden forest. How she yearned to be free at that moment, and just run. She gasped as she ran into a student, her books falling to the ground as pages from her tattered journal flew around her. Her eyes widened as she bent down to gather them together before anyone had seen them, crude, yet detailed sketches of wolves, moons, and the forest. After she had picked them all up, she quickly walked out of the castle, headed for the Forbidden forest. As she ran into the thick woods, she threw her books to the side, letting them land in front of a large tree. Her body shrunk to a pure black wolf, snarling and growling a bit as she shook her head. She ran as fast as she could, the wind beating against her face as she made her way into the deepest part of the woods.

Casper ran, enjoying being on his own with the sounds, the smell and the feel of the forest in general.- “Tall crooked tree, 18 steps ahead, turn 45 degrees, 67 steps ahead, large rock.” –he smirked and followed his own instructions until he reached the rock by a large tree and climbed upon it before jumping up and grabbing hold of a branch, easily pulling himself up so he sat on it. He continued climbing upwards ‘till he reached what looked like a bridge between the trees and he made his way slowly over it, the bridge swaying beneath him. He passed two more bridges and reached his secret hideout, a wooden cottage of the kind small kids build. He sighed happily and pulled out a blanket and a pillow, secured the cottage with smells to prevent anyone with the motive of hurting him to enter the cottage. He then wrapped himself up and drifted off. The spiders wouldn’t come out in a couple hours yet.

There was a moment where her breath stopped as she suddenly tilted backwards and she started falling, the broom still in her hands. When Thomas had been playing with her she'd felt this sensation. 'I should... put it back' she thought to herself as she started to fly closer towards the quidditch pitch again; the older students where practicing and from what she could tell they were Gryffindor. 'This'll be funny...' she said smiling as she swooped down and sped into the middle of the seekers path, pulling his robe over his face so he couldn't see and shooting after the quaffle. 'Hey you! Stop that!' Someone called, but she vanished before they could stop her the quaffle under her arm. Vanishing towards the forest she squeaked as the broom suddenly ducked down and she hit the ground roughly, mere meters from Hagrid's house. She lay there, shiver; the wind was colder than she'd noticed in the air. Sitting up slowly she looked around and then scrambled to her feet. 'Oh no! Thomas' broom... Where is it?!' turning sharply she jumped violently as Hagrid opened his door. 'Hello? A Slytherin? What are you doing out 'ere?' He wasn't hostile, at all actually. 'I... I lost the broom I was on when I crashed, I don't- ' Mort's voice was almost frantic and she stopped to catch her breath and look around the grounds again. 'Alrigh' don't you worry bout tha. I'm sure you can find it, you are a witch after all, just use a spell to find it' He smiled nicely and towered over Mortimer, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. 'But... But it wasn't mine, I took it from the boy's dormitory, he'll be so, so very mad...' Hagrid's expression changed and he frowned deeply, 'Why'd you take it then? You know you shouldn't take things that don't belong to you.' Fay Mortimer was in too much distress to really listen to what he say saying but stopped as she spotted the broom some meters away. Running towards it she picked it up and let out another happy sound as she saw it was unharmed. 'Your forehead seems to be a little scratched up, how bout you come into my house and I'll give you something to warm you up so I can at least send you back home without worrin bout you gettin a cold.' He pulled Mortimer with him inside and she sat down on a chair, clinging to the broom.

Casper woke up, freezing, and was about to move when he realized there was a snake resting across his lap. He froze for a moment but then relaxed, admiring the beautiful pattern of its shin. He reached out his slender hand, hesitating to touch it. Finally he dared stroking a finger over its shin, his eyes glowing with excitement. Noticing his touch the snake quickly turned its’ head and hissed at him, making him retreat his hand and freeze again. He knew he could speak to the snake, but ever since he was little he had been taught not to, and despite his mother was around, he feared using his gift of knowing parseltongue- “No spiderhunt today.” –he sighed and leant his head back against the pillow, afraid to move too much because of the snake. He didn’t want to harm the reptile by removing it with magic.

Thomas would decide to be very boring, since nothing was going on at the Slytherin House. He did his homework for a change, chased out little kids that annoyed him, flirted a little with the girls, got Snape on his neck and pissed him off by making comments about hair lotions… In the end, he missed Mortimer and Casper being around. It seemed like he had, although he had tried to avoid doing so since his first year, developed some kind of feelings for fellow students. And it were even students from his own house, Slytherin, which he despised and hated since he had been put there. Anything that connected him to the dark side, was a total no-no to him. Snapes nagging was starting to bother him as well. Couldn’t the fellow just look for someone who’d say yes? But then again, it wasn’t his own choice… He just did as he was told.

'So you're the famous Fay Mortimer du Toit. I've heard of you. A lot of the students talk bout you like you're some sort of stain on the wizarding world. I've hit a few of them mind ye, they're right old bastards, even worse some of them are Gryffindor!' Hagrid shook his head not fully understanding the students of the school. Mortimer was quiet was she listened to him. She knew she wasn't popular among certain students in Slytherin but Gryffindor too? Shaking her head softly she kept a tight hand on the broom, her hand was starting to hurt and she could see a small cut on the inside of her palm. 'Thank you, Hagrid.' she whispered and stood up slowly brushing her robes clean for dirt best she could. 'I really should be going back to my dorm now, the one I borrowed the broom from will be really, really cross if I don't give it back without him noticing it.' she bowed her head and said her goodbyes before beginning her run back to the castle. Dodging the different shadows in the hallways she was careful not to be spotted by any teachers and got the great rush of a home free when a hand snapped onto her shoulders. 'And to whom does that broom belong to?' came the satisfied voice of the Slytherin house prefect; Fay Mort turned to look at him carefully and shivered slightly in fear. Her hand was starting to hurt even more and she noticed that so did different parts of her body including her head, legs, left arm and her neck. 'Please, I just want to go to bed, I won't cause any more trouble I promise you... Please' His satisfied expression turned to one of sadistic tendencies and Mortimer stiffened as his grip on her shoulder tightened painfully, 'Well well... Always good to have a Squib in Slytherin...'

Thomas frowned. He had been going up stairs to the dorm, in order to go sleep, but something downstairs was making a ruckus. He sighed slightly annoyed. They never listened to him. They never went to sleep when he told them to. He turned around and walked downstairs again. The first thing he saw, was Mortimer holding his broom. “You little…” he started. But then he noticed the prefect. He was scolding little Mort. His Mort. “You little dickhead,” he changed the sentence tactically “you better get to your bed yourself before I’ll kick your ass to Tokyo.” He pulled his wand already to frighten the poor guy even more. He put up the typical Hunter’s angryface, which would scare nearly anyone away, except maybe Casper or Mort herself. He snatched the broom out of her hands, but didn’t mention she took it without permission. “This,” he said “is my broom and she borrowed it from me. Got a problem with it?” He spoke tempting, provoking the other and looking for a reason to curse his ass.


(To Be Continued)

Thomas’ superior feelings and arrogance were already known through the entire Slytherin House, maybe even in the other houses. Even the prefects didn’t dare to object to his whims. He was a harsh and lonely type. Nobody dared to talk to him. Yet lately, Thomas had gained two friends: Mortimer and Casper. Some would call it odd, others didn’t really bother. There was a small group of people, however, that found it normal: weird people often clung together. Despite his character, Thomas was still a very much wanted persona with the ladies. They aimed for his power and his looks, in both he was above the average. His hair was of a gold blonde, a rather long and messy cut. His eyes had this unique tint of green, light yet at the same time warm. His skin was pale, but looked smooth and soft – nobody could confirm that last thing, because nobody dared to touch him. His wizardry skills were just outstanding. He was able to use nonverbal spells already in his third year, could memorize potions after two times reading a recipe, and his most special ability – which wasn’t commonly known – was his animagus. He could change into a black snake. Thomas now was sitting in front of the green fire. His clothing style was as sloppy as usual: his tie was loose, and his shirt wasn’t entirely buttoned. He had this tired look over his face, just like usual. Thomas was a 7th year of Slytherin, and one of the few that couldn’t get along with professor Snape. In the evenings, he mostly had fights with the professor, however he was one of the most outstanding and perfect students. He hadn’t crossed any rules as far as anyone knew, and he got the highest scores in all courses.

Marilyn walked past the students as they were all staring at her beauty: her long black wavy hair that had a side fringe, her grey light eyes almost, a black top that had little white buttons and were buttoned fully and also shorts that had gold big buttons to the sides. Every slytherin girl looked at Marilyn as she passed them, all of them were whispering to their friends about Marilyn's appearance and the way she dressed, as she was passing all of them students, she dropped one of her green books on her way to the Slytherin room. However, Marilyn picked the books up and carried them in her arms and saw a boy sitting in front of the green fire, she just remained silent as she watched the boy.

Thomas was staring into the fire, when he noticed a girl was staring at him. He glanced over his shoulder. He checked her out from top to bottom. She didn’t dress in the normal school uniform, an oddity in the Slytherin dorms. For some reason, Thomas seemed to attract odd people. He softly bit the tip of his thumb, still watching the girl. Was she just some other squealing fangirl, or what? The fuck did she want from him? He continued staring into the fire for a few seconds, then to get up slowly and walked towards her. “What do you want from me,” he asked, demanding in his voice. It was already a rarity he spoke to someone. Girls in the dorm were now staring at them two, and they both could realize at that moment that there would be gossips around an inexistent relationship between them two.

She scoffed at him, she would check him out from the bottom to the top. Her grey eyes looked at his in a pissed off way, her purple eyeshadows would shimmer from the light, and then she would respond.- "Nothing. I just--got lost."

“That’s the excuse of a ten years old,” Thomas snapped back. She clearly disturbed his already off-mood even more. Thomas was known to be a difficult person, especially when his day had been troublesome. His eyes looked harsh as he suddenly turned around to the others, who were staring and whispering. “What’re you looking at, huh?” They suddenly had urgent business to attend to, as Thomas stamped back to his spot at the hearth. He squatted down there again, fiercely staring into the fire, that lit up even more than before – clearly Thomas’ doing.

"You seem to be pissed off, and excuse me? It’s not my fault I'm new here!" She rolled her eyes at him and then crossed her arms, standing still, looking at Thomas.

Thomas continued staring into the fire. “I don’t care,” he replied “I’m pissed off when I want to be. It’s none of your concern. There’re a few things you should know, but you’ll figure them out soon enough. Only one I’ll tell you: don’t bug me too much. You’ll soon notice that it isn’t a good idea.” A few girls were peeking around the corner, giggling because the newcomer ‘got rejected’, as they called it. They didn’t know however, that Thomas preferred someone with some backbones that didn’t just bow under his whims, however useful that power could be.

"Whatever, what am I suppose to do? Just sit here and stare?" She raised her voice a bit at him, she really didn't care that he was pissed off or not, she was the kind of person who never cared about anything really, she started to walk around the Slytherin room, and then stared back at Thomas.

Thomas frowned. He found her quite disturbing in this mood of his. Any other time he would have liked her, but not now. “You wouldn’t want to piss me off entirely,” he whispered between his teeth, standing back up. He turned towards the girl, glaring between the blonde bangs. A fierce light in his eyes showed he had a murderous intent. It gave him the aura of an animal that was about to attack someone that invaded its territory.

"Why not? I really don't care, you know." She flicked her black hair, and walked off, Marilyn put the dark green books on the table beside the green couch.

Without any warning, Thomas suddenly began to move. He ran towards one of the walls, rather fast – apparently his condition was good as well – and then took two steps against the wall. With the second step, he pushed himself off, making a backwards flip over Marilyn. The moment he was right above her, he turned around in mid air, placing his hands in front of him. A giant circlet of fire formed around Marilyn, closing her off from the rest of the house. Thomas landed on the floor again, squatting. He hadn’t even used his wand to perform magic of this level, a rarity even in Hogwarts. “Because sometimes,” he answered “you might piss off the wrong people.” With these words, the circlet started to close Marilyn in from the sides.

What the fuck, are you doing?" She looked at the circlet that started to get close to her, her eyes going lighter almost white.

“Are you stupid, or do you only act like it?” Thomas asked “Isn’t it rather obvious I’m attacking you?” He rose to his full length again. “I’m measuring what you’re worth, and apparently it isn’t much.” He rose his hand towards the fire, that suddenly disappeared. “If you can’t even counter that, you’re weak. Pathetic and weak.”

"Maybe you're stupid, attacking a lady!" Marilyn suggested angrily and then looked at him as if she was about to attack him but held her anger, as she thought to herself how powerful Thomas was.

“Is it stupid to attack a lady?” Thomas wondered out loud. He smiled faintly, his eyes narrowing, which gave him a rather mad look. “So, I can’t attack female Death Eaters?” he questioned. The way he pronounced Death Eaters only showed disgust – not the usual Slytherin admiration. “Don’t use your gender as an excuse, miss.” He walked towards the window, staring outside.

"Don't call me miss, I have a name!" Her eyes almost locking with his, her rage approaching a high level.

“And I’m supposed to know it?” he parried. “I could invade your mind, your memories, but I don’t think you’d appreciate that, now would you?” He took a seat in front of the window, on the stone bench-like object.

"I'm Marilyn, you must be Thomas, correct? And, to answer your question about invading my mind, no, I wouldn't."

Thomas hopped out of his sitting spot, his mood totally different from before. “Thomas Hunter, at your service,” he said sarcastically, while bowing deeply. “Pleasure meeting you, miss Marilyn.” He took back his spot and continued staring out of the window. “I apologize for my mood, yet I don’t regret it.”

She scoffed. "Once again, don't call me miss, I don't like it. Also, it’s a pleasure to meet you too, Thomas."

Thomas shrugged. “It’s not like I care what other people like or dislike,” he replied. “As long as they know what I like and dislike I’m fine.” He grinned oddly.

"Pfft." She scoffed at him and stood behind Thomas. "Do you have something better to do, than just..staring out of the window?"

Thomas frowned. “What’s wrong with staring out of the window?” he replied “I finished my work already, the quidditch field is occupied by Gryffindor, the library is boring, … What would you do, except stare out of the window?”

"Ugh, there's nothing to stare at..at all...I agree the library is boring..." Marilyn stared at the green fire.

“Well,” Thomas sighed “I guess I’m going to fetch me a sparring partner.” He stood up and walked to the dorm exit, however it was late already and students weren’t allowed in the corridors at night. “Maybe I’ll go to the Forbidden Forest,” he muttered, before he went out.

"Can I come?..." ~Marilyn felt to bored to stay here all alone by herself, she would rather go somewhere else than just be in one place for a long time.

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t care much, if you’re not afraid of centaurs, spiders and whatever it is that haunts there.” He walked through the hallway, apparently not scared by any teacher or student. Nobody seemed to care him walking around in the castle. Skilled students had their privileges too, apparently. When arriving at the castle door, it opened without warning for them. Thomas’ wizardry skills extended far enough he could do plenty of spells without words nor wand.

Marilyn slowly followed him to the castle door. The students stared at them two as they were walking around the castle, she rolled her eyes at them and then glanced back at Thomas. "I'm not afraid of spiders, centaurs and whatever it is that haunts there.”

“You got no reason to be scared as long as I’m with you,” he replied slightly annoyed. “As long as you don’t scream or pee your pants.” He crossed the plain of grass, past Hagrid’s house and walked into the forest like it was nothing. A long, deep howling sounded through the woods. “Werewolves,” Thomas concluded. “Didn’t know it was full moon already.”

"Pfft, I'm not afraid of them either." She carried on walking into the foggy, deep and loud howling woods, looking around shivering a bit.

“Great,” Thomas said “Then you wouldn’t mind waiting here for me?” Without waiting for a reply, he started running and in no time he had disappeared out of her sight.

"Fine," she replied as if she was only talking to herself from now on, still shivering and whispered to herself: "Should have brought a coat..But I didn't come with one anyway...He’s such a weirdo..."

A low growl sounded behind her, and two lights glared from the bush she was nearest at. A wolf came sneaking out of it, remaining close by the ground. Other growling sounds sounded behind her as well – wolves hunt in packs.

She glanced over her shoulder looking at the wolf's and then giggled a bit.

Suddenly, a ruffling sound behind her pierced through the night. Something was right behind her. “Seriously, women, you can’t leave them alone for two minutes or they get attacked,” Thomas’ annoyed voice sounded behind her.

"Ugh, I'm not afraid of them wolves, I forgot to mention, I’m a wolf too." Her eyes smirked at Thomas with a pissed of way. "I wasn't even getting attacked."

“You just didn’t notice you were being attacked. Wolves aren’t the only thing in the forest, you know,” Thomas replied in a bothered way. “There’s creatures even I can’t handle,” he continued, slowly lowering his body until his knees reached the ground. He touched the soil. “About 17 werewolves nearby,” he concluded “and the spiders are on the move too. Something’s not right.” A frown appeared on his face as he turned his head to the depths of the forest. “We should get the hell out of here,” he mumbled.

"I thought you weren't afraid of anything, or it seemed like you aren't afraid of anything. And maybe..this is because they sensed me, as a supernatural?"

“’scuse me,” Thomas answered “I’m not afraid of you. I’m just not really certain if it’s a good idea to stay here. Something’s in that forest, chasing everything this way. Something I can’t handle. Something seventeen me’s can’t handle, so I doubt you’d survive here in the forest. This isn’t being afraid, this is being worried and responsible.” He grabbed her wrist. “Now let’s go before a dragon lands on our head.” He pulled her in front of him, using his force and her weight to throw her over the wolves. He himself ran up a tree, pushed off and landed next to her. Then, he grabbed her wrist again and started to run, dragging her along.

"I hate running! You---ugh!" The moon reflected in Marilyn's grey wolf eyes, a sudden pain in her knee and neck made her fall on the ground.

“For fuck’s sake,” Thomas cursed “Get up, we don’t have time.” When she didn’t seem to be able to get up, he lifted her on his back. “You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?”

"No I don't! And I don't fucking care either!"

“Drop dead, you woman,” Thomas groaned. He closed his eyes, still running. A magical shield blocked the way for the wolves that were following them, and the other creatures that were coming their way. When they had reached the edge of the wood, Thomas was out of breath. He could barely run anymore, and stumbled a little. Until the root of a tree decided to bug him. Thomas’ foot got stuck behind the root, making him fall to the ground. This also caused Marilyn to be thrown off his back and roll a little further into the grass. Thomas crawled up. “Fuck,” he mumbled, seemingly to cuss in every situation.

Marylin was thrown off Thomas's back and landed further on the grass hard, making her head hit the ground, she slightly rolled as she was laying unconscious.

“Seriously?” Thomas yelled at her. “This isn’t the moment to faint, woman!” Nevertheless, he hopped towards her, pulling her on his back again. Mumbling about how stupid women were, Thomas stumbled back to the castle as fast as he could. He took her immediately back to the dorm, already glad they were safe and sound inside the castle. When back in the house, everybody had left to their beds already, so nobody was in the house itself. Thomas let Marilyn slide into his arms and carefully dropped her on the couch. With a few spells he healed her wound, then to heal his wound. He knew she probably wouldn’t wake up immediately, which borrowed him some time to report what he had find out to Dumbledore. He quietly left the dorm room again.

"Ugh!--You dumbass!" She woke up feeling pissed as if she wants to punch him for making her fall on the grass laying unconscious.

As she woke up, she would notice she wasn’t outside anymore, but safe and sound inside the Slytherin House. Thomas, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Marilyn finds herself in the Slytherin dorm, she took a mirror that she came in with in the first place and looked herself in it "Grrrr! You IDIOT! You ruined my hair!" She would pick grass out of her wavy black hair, and then yelled in the room.

Thomas entered the House again. “Oh, you’re awake, it seems,” he said. His face was rather stern, instead of the usual pissed. “Good.” He sat down on one of the other couches. “Your hair is your biggest problem right now?” he asked, rather unbelieving. “Geez, of all things, your hair… You could’ve been eaten by like hundreds of different creatures, yet your hair bugs you most?”

"Yes! You ruined my fucking hair!" She walked up to Thomas and brought up her hand to his cheek and slapped it. "That’s what you get...For throwing me on the ground! AND getting the grass in my hair!"

Thomas didn’t react to the slap. Instead, a smile appeared on his face. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked. “I’m used to worse. Far worse.” He touched his cheek lightly. “I didn’t throw you, I fell. You rolled, so you got the grass in your own hair. Stop acting so vain.”

"Like I care if I'm being so vain." She rolled her grey eyes and went over to sit on the other couches. "What are you smiling about?"

“My mother’s name was Hunter,” Thomas said. “My father left her to raise me alone. He’s a murderer. My mother was in love with a murderer, and she knew. She thought he had left her because of me, so she hated me. She hit me, burnt me, whatever she liked to do. That’s what I care about. You care about your hair.”

"Oh... I'm sorry... My parents sent me here... Because they thought I wouldn't fit in the normal school... with all the human beings… Just because I’m a wolf... and also because they both hated me…"

“Like Hogwarts has that much odd people,” Thomas sneered. “Your parents don’t sound like the most sane people I’ve met.” He rose from his seat and walked towards the window, once again staring outside. “I suppose we should go sleep,” he then mumbled.

"I don't understand... what’s up with you and that window?" Marilyn walked over to the window and stared outside seeing nothing. "There’s nothing there…"

“I stare at the sky when I try to think,” Thomas replied. “Because I find it gorgeous and it empties and eases my mind. It’s not like I’m looking at anything in particular.”

"Well, I should probably go sleep..." She sighed as she walked away from the window.

“Goodnight,” Thomas mumbled. He looked over his shoulder at Marilyn. “And… Welcome to Slytherin.”

"Goodnight..." Marilyn was about to lay on the couch but before she would do that she would reply: ".....Thanks...."

Marilyn rolled over to the other side, but she fell on the green mat "Damn… I’m trying to get some sleep here..." she rubbed her eyes softly to see what’s going on first, it seemed silent in the room, she stood up and looked around, it seemed nobody was in with her, all alone... She walked out of the room almost hitting the door "Oh come on.." she smirked at the door and it opened by itself, the doors slammed behind her back as she walked away, it seemed everyone seemed to be eating in the great hall. She shrugged and sat beside a blonde haired girl, she really didn't seem to care who was sitting next to her anyway, she took a couple of strawberries and ate them.

Rosalie had her breakfast in the Great Hall. She woke up early in this morning. She looked the girl who sat beside her, but she didn't care. Then Rosalie continued the eating.

She carried on eating the strawberries and then after that, she grabbed a chicken wing, she ate it slowly trying not to choke, she felt like it was bad or something. "Is this some bad chicken or what? What do I care anyway?" She rolled her eyes and finished off her chicken, she took an apple and began eating it.

A tall, pale teenager entered the great hall. His appearance was rather… uncommon. He had snow white hair, purple animal-like eyes. He was rather slender, muscular even. Not the kind of obvious muscles, but strong nonetheless. His skin looked soft and pale, his face was set in a grim mood. The way he grinned – angrily – was almost like a wild animal as well. Despite his odd looks he was rather handsome. He apparently didn’t wear the common uniform, and therefore it was rather impossible to tell which House he belonged to. But the way he moved past the tables of Slytherin, his arrogance towards them absolutely obvious, his hateful glare, … Obviously he belonged to the House of the Lion. As he passed by, many whispering voices would rise.

She glared at him and rolled her eyes at the new male who was passing the Slytherin tables, a girl whispered to Marilyn "Who's that man?" She looked at her with a glare "I don't know, probably some idiot..." Then she would turn around and check him out from the bottom to the top, all the girls almost drooled over him as he was passing the table. All the other tables stared at him too, but the Slytherins looked at him like a big insect that needed to be squashed immediately.

The blonde girl looked at that guy with a sniffy look. "I don't know what is so interesting is this man..." she said to herself and tried to continue her breakfast, but she wasn't very hungry so she stood up and went out to the corridor.

Marilyn stood up as well since she finished her food, she walked out of the great hall still looking at the man..she went out to the corridors, straight to the Slytherin room and threw herself on the dark green couch. "Ehh...Who is he?..Bleh..I wouldn't care anyway...He’s some idiot probably.”

Saiph stopped halfway his way to the Gryffindor table. He had spotted a guy he had hated since his first year. His grin became more broad as he walked towards the blonde Slytherin guy that was casually walking down the hall, towards his own table. “Yoh, Hunter,” Saiph called out. Even his voice was more like the howling sound of a wolf than a human’s. “What did I hear, you’re dating Snape?” Almost the whole Gryffindor table burst out into a loud laughter.

Thomas turned around. He disliked the voice that called out his name quite a lot. He was facing Saiph with a frown. “Yes,” he then replied, a faint smile on his face “I see him as regularly as you fuck animals.” It was commonly known those two were nearly the strongest wizards of both houses. They pretty much represented the hate from Gryffindor towards Slytherin. Both Houses supported their own student. It was even said that Saiph and Thomas often dueled each other, without any victor nor loser, and that that was the main reason they hated each other so much: they didn’t know who was stronger.

She went to the common room and looked at her timetable. "Oh great...more lessons with the Gryffindor..." Then she packed her school stuff and went to the next lesson. The History of Magic lesson was boring as always. She almost fell asleep.

She was still laying down on the couch, doing lessons weren't her thing, she would never go to them only if they were interesting. She got up from the green couch, walking over to the green fire, she was all alone by herself while others were in the Great hall still having their food probably and having the girls drool over that new guy who came in. Marilyn never ate much at all, she just eats a little then usually walks off to wander somewhere else.

Thomas came walking back into the Slytherin House. His face was slightly grim, a frown on his face. Not that he usually looked kind, but now he looked seriously pissed. “Dating Snape,” he hissed in a low voice, his eyes narrowed to thin green stripes. “Like my standards are that pathetic.” He continued cursing without much sound, as he walked to a table and took all his books. He dropped them inside his bag, then turned around. “Oh, hey,” he said to Marilyn. “Have to leave for the Black Arts class. Aren’t you in it, too?”

"Hey. No. I couldn't be bothered going to class today." Marilyn stood up and sat on the couch, picking her nails, she usually does that when she’s bored. Then she suddenly looked up at Thomas and asked him something: "You know that idiot?"

Thomas rose an eyebrow. “You mean Saiph? I suppose not, but I’ve had… many previous encounters with him. He tends to be rude, even towards the house of Gryffindor.” Thomas shrugged a little. “It’s not like he scares me by barking like a pup,” he added with a faint smile. He made a waving gesture. “Well, I’m off to ruining class then.”

She gave a little wave to Thomas as he was leaving. "Alright then."

After the History of Magic Rosalie went back to the common room and sat down besides the fireplace. She wasn't that talkative and friendly person. She hasn't got any friends and she liked to be alone.

Nazzy walked into the common room and goes to sit by herself, her head leaning against the wall. She stared straight ahead, letting her forearms rest on her knees. She sat there for a moment, her ring shining from the reflection of the fire. She then stood up again, to head to the library. She walked down the corridors, keeping to herself. She then turned a corner and went into the library. She sat at a table, alone, turning her ring around her finger while staring at the restricted section. As she noticed the time, she practically ran towards her next class, deciding she would stop by the library again later. She sat down in her seat and stared straight ahead, losing herself to her thoughts again.

Marilyn looked at the girl who just came in to the common room, she smirked but she kept quiet, she took out a book from a bookshelf and opened it reading it quietly on a first page. "Nothing interesting...Nothing at all..." she spoke to herself.

She gazed the fire and thought about what to do. She was kinda bored, but she hasn't got friends, so she stood up and went to the libary. It was so quiet. She found an interesting book and started to read.

"Eh..Maybe I should take a nap..or something." she thought to herself for a second, books were boring to some people, including her. Most of the Slytherins didn't read, it wasn't their interest, nor it was hers. Marilyn took a pillow and put it behind her head, lying down on the green couch, softly closing her eyes.

As soon as the class had finished – which was earlier than the usual, since Thomas had managed to blow up the teacher’s desk – Thomas would walk towards the library. The furious teacher had given them quite a lot to do, and therefore he had to pick up a few books. Not that he cared about his misbehavior. Thomas yawned broadly, as he loaded the books in his bag. He spotted a lonely little girl, but he didn’t care too much. He returned towards the Slytherin House. When arriving there, he noticed Marilyn still being there, sleeping again. “You surely are a lazy thing, aren’t you,” he noticed casually, dropping the books on his desk and starting doing his homework.

Marilyn woke up as soon as he came in, she grabbed her book and then pretended to read a little. After that, she snapped the book closed. A little grin went across her lips as she was looking at Thomas. "Hey there, you doing homework?" Marilyn asked him waiting for a patient response.

Thomas sighed. “Yep,” he replied “Teacher got mad because I blew up his desk and half of the students along with it,” he continued as if it were nothing. He casually left out that it were mostly Slytherins he hurt, because however he belonged to that House, Thomas held no grudge towards Gryffindor. On the contrary, even: Thomas liked Gryffindor more than Slytherin, but he couldn’t show that in public. His pure blood had caused him to end up in Slytherin, however any other House would’ve suited for him as well: he was a talented and courageous pure blood. Thomas shrugged a little. “It’s not like it’s hard. Oh, before I forget: the teacher said that if you were absent next time without being with the nurse, you’re going to get into trouble.”

"Does it look like I care, if I miss one or two more lessons? Nope." She shook her head and headed out to the Great Hall, all the tables had food organized, chicken wings, strawberries, pies and lots more on each house table. Marilyn went and sat over next to a Slytherin girl who ate like a mad person. Marilyn stared at her and then brought her eyes down to the food. Marilyn got up and got a mug and poured mango juice in the mug, she drank it little by little, then glanced at the new guy, Saiph, then rolled her eyes continuing to drink her mango juice.

Saiph was certainly an interesting persona to see. The way he looked wasn’t the only strange thing about him, but the way he acted was even worse. He spoke with a loud voice, so almost half of the Hall could hear them, and his language wasn’t much better: he knew quite a lot of words he could use to cuss and swear. Apparently, he didn’t even mind to hit his fellow Gryffindors when they were opposing his opinion. “Idiots!” you could hear him call from the other side of the Hall. “Like any Slytherin could win from me!” Tempting it was, the way he provoked them from the other side of the hall. Yet none of the Slytherins reacted – they knew it was most likely true.

Marilyn really didn't care what the Slytherins thought of Saiph, she didn't know Saiph, so she didn't say anything about him and think anything about him, she was just finishing off her mango juice and ready to go out of the great hall. She stood up leaving the empty mug on the table, while others ate. Marilyn turned a corner and entered the Slytherin common room, she sat on a couch and crossed her legs, getting out a book to read about Slytherins, this time the book interested her, her eyes were focused straight onto the words.

Marilyn really didn't care what the Slytherins thought of Saiph, she didn't know Saiph, so she didn't say anything about him and think anything about him, she was just finishing off her mango juice and ready to go out of the great hall, she stood up leaving the empty mug on the table, while others ate. Marilyn turned a corner and entered the Slytherin common room, she sat on a couch and crossed her legs, getting out a book to read about Slytherins, this time the book interested her, her eyes were focused straight onto the words. "Enough of this shit, lying around here." ~She stood up from the couch and headed out to the Forbidden forest, nobody really cared where she was going, they were back to their usual business. Marilyn entered the forest, even though it was daylight it was still foggy and howling all the time..She turned right and almost tripped over something, it was a dead unicorn with silver blood on the cold ground, she glanced down and backed away for a minute "What the?"

A low growl would sound behind her, not really threatening, rather warning her from something. A snow white with black wolf was sneaking under the bushes, keeping its body near the ground. Its tail was between its legs, ears flat against its head and fangs clearly visible. The eyes of the animal were probably the most interesting part: they were of a bright purple, unnatural almost. The animal turned in a circle around her, still growling, yet not attacking, nor trying to make her scared. Apparently, it recognized her scent.

After reading, Rosalie went to the Quiddich pitch to see the team during training. She liked that sport very much, but she never tried. The weather was great. "Hm I should make friends. This is boring alone..." -she thought in herself.

She walked out of the forbidden forest and headed down to the Quiddich pitch to see the team training too, she really had nothing else to do, she found a seat next to a blonde Slytherin girl and sat next to her, she didn't care nor even notice her or look at her, she focused her eyes on the training team.

The blonde girl watched the training when another Slytherin student sat down beside her. She looked at her, but didn't say anything. "She looks nice."- said Rosalie in her mind.

"Thanks." It was impossible for other Slytherin students to read others minds, but Marilyn actually could read anyones mind, a little gust of wind went through her side black fringe that was swayed to the left, she really didn't smile or anything then glanced at the girl.~

Rosalie suddenly looked at the girl next to her. "Pardon?"-said carefully.- "Did you say this to me?"-asked the girl.

"Well what do you think?" ~She almost wanted to roll her eyes at the girl.~

"Oh, I see...sorry. But why?” asked Rosalie and she gazed the girl, who watched the training. The blonde girl couldn't say anything, because she wasn't a talkative person.

"But why what?" Marilyn didn't even look into the blonde girl's eyes at all, as if she was only talking to herself.

"Why did you say thanks? I didn't say anything to you before..." looked at her again.

"Well let’s just say I can read people's minds."

Rosalie was surprised. And she didn't talk again. She watched the team instead.

Marilyn didn't talk too, she just continued watching the team.~

When Rosalie started to get bored, she stood up. "By the way, I'm Rosalie."- said to her and left her alone, and went back to the common room, then she started to write her Potions essay~

"I’m--Marilyn." ~She watched the girl as she walked away and decided to follow her to the common room.~

Rosalie tried to make her homework, but she was unable to focus. So she put away her school stuff and sat down in front of the fireplace. She was alone...again.

"Something wrong?" ~She was already sitting on the emerald green couch, her legs crossed and her head against the wall.~

"Um...nope. I'm fine." -said Rosalie quietly.- "I just hate studying..."- gazed the fire again.~

"Then don't study..Easy enough."

"Hm...Yes. I finished already.”- didn't say anything else.

"Well then..I suppose all the students are going bed right now."

"Yes, but I forgot the dinner so I'm going to look for something to eat. I'm not sleepy anyway."-said Rosalie and stood up.

"Agreed." ~She nodded before crashing on the couch, she headed out to the great hall but some Slytherins were in there too, they were talking and some playing chess, but she decided to go eat.~

Rosalie sat down next to Marilyn and started to eat something, she watched her house mate who played wizard chess.~

"So how old are you?" ~Suddenly she got interested in Rosalie's age.~

"I'm thirteen."-answered while she tired to swallow the food.-"And you?"-asked the same.~

"17..You are quite young.." ~She grabbed a strawberry and chucked it in her mouth.~

"Um...yes. So this is your last year here..."-said the blonde quietly.~

She nodded slowly and then chucked another one in her mouth.~ "Yup."

"And what are your future plans?"-asked her curiously.~

"Oh..well..I don't really know yet.. Im planning to stay here a little longer, you know, to make friends and stuff."

“Mhm...I see."-smiled faintly.-I don't have friends."

"Well..Who are you talking to then, hm? I'm your friend now and you are mine." ~She stood up reaching for a chicken wing.~

"You know...I'm not that talkative or social person...But I'm happy, because you're my friend"-smiled and started to eat some Bertie Bott's every-flavour beans.-"Ugh...it tastes like vomit..."

"Yeah...You better go and umm get a glass of water..before you throw it all up.." ~She suggested.~

Rosalie accepted the suggestion and got a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Oh god...pumpkin juice, really?" She looked at the pumpkin juice as if she was about to vomit...

"You don't like it?"-looked at her.

"Fuck no." She quickly shook her head.

Suddenly she heard a bang, then looked at to the Hufflepuff table and she started to laugh sarcastically, because one clumsy student blew up something.-"What an idiot..."

She looked at the Hufflepuff table and laughed as well along with her friend, Rosalie.~ "Exactly." ~The whole Slytherin table laughed too.~

"Stupid Hufflepuff..."-said with disgust.

"All the tables are stupid, Rosalie." ~She said with a sudden laugh.~

Rosalie laughed with her friend.-"Well...Slytherin is not"-smirked.

"Well I meant, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and the last.....Ravenclaw."

"Hm... Ravenclaw is okay, except when they think they're too clever...That's annoying." said Rosalie.

"Right...Anyways I'll take a last strawberry and go to bed..Nice meeting you, Rosalie." Marilyn took the last strawberry and ate in on her way to the Girls’ Slytherin dormitory, she really didn't like sleeping nor she was the sleeping type either, but she had no choice. She would usually stalk the corridors when everybody's asleep, but this time she thought she should get some sleep, even though she didn't want to or couldn't. She finished off her strawberry and put on her night clothes. Marilyn rushed to the bed and pulled the quilt over her.

After her late dinner, Rosalie didn't go to bed. She walked in the quiet, lonely corridors, she didn't care if prefects or Filch would catch her. She was happy, because she had found a great friend. When she got tired of walking, the blonde girl went back to the girls’ dormitory and tried to sleep.

Marilyn fidgeted for the most part in her bed, she couldn't sleep at all "Oh god, this is getting me nowhere, fuck it." She got up and puts her everyday clothes back on and heads out to stalk her corridors, she said two words "Lightos Emplyos." and little circles of light appeared floating in the air as Marilyn wandered around the corridors while everybody were sleeping. The lights shimmered into one of the moving portraits, one of them got angry at her and beamed "Hey, can you calm the lights please? We're trying to get some sleep around here." She really didn't care, she scoffed in a rude way, she kept walking until it bored her. But it didn't she: was kinda a person who would stalk anyone whenever she feels like it.

A dark shadow was following Marilyn. Saiph preferred staying in the shadows, but his presence was quite sensible. He often snuck around at night, but rarely met anyone in the corridors. The scent of the girl was clearly Slytherin, so he decided to stay out of her sight. Yet at one moment, something else – his instinct – warned him she was rather interesting. He had met her before, in the forbidden forest, where he had found a dead unicorn earlier. He had been trying to figure out what the heck was in that forest, but then she came along. He did try to warn her to get out of the woods – which she had – but for some reason… There was still something off about this person. She intrigued him, yet his pride opposed to figuring out more about her. “Well well,” he muttered suddenly “You’re not supposed to be up this late, are you.”

She kept walking until something or someone stopped her, she heard a sound..well..not a sound; a sentence..and then turned around. She saw that guy, Saiph. "And who's to tell me what to do?" she rolled her eyes at him before she was going to leave and stalk more...she stopped and asked "Were you just fucking following me?" she turned around again and folded her arms in a pissed off way.

The blonde girl couldn't sleep well...She had a nightmare about her mother. She woke up and took out her diary from the driver. "I almost forgot to write in my diary..."-thought in her mind. Then she started to write about her day and the new friend. When finished writing, Rosalie put on her robe and walked on the lonely corridors. The night was cold but she didn't go back to the common room. She went outside and sat down on a bench and gazed the stars.

Saiph grinned with his wolfish grin. “Not at all,” he replied, walking past her. “I just encountered you, while wandering through the corridors. I often do so. I know the nice spots in this castle.” He started running a few paces, before he turned into the giant black and white wolf Marilyn had met before. As he did so, he turned around, showing her his flickering white fangs. His fur was as soft as a blanket and looked warm. Even for a wolf he looked gorgeous. His eyes looked rather kind, unique in its purple. He sat down on his ass, wrapping his fluffy tail around his paws. He had the looks of a loyal and courageous friend – not pet, he seemed to wild for that. A low, warm growl sounded from deep down his throat. Then, he stood up again, wagging his tail happily before running into the darkness of the castle’s halls again. The sound of his paws died a little later.

Lyall Mortimer du Toit smiled as she entered the well-known common room of the Slytherin House. She filled her nostrils with the air and she couldn’t help but quirk a smile at all the familiarity. There was no one here at the time so she ran up to the second year girls’ dormitory and jumped onto her bed. She’d visited her parents this Christmas; even though they were in Azkaban she’d had permission to spend the holidays with them without the Dementors being near them. She’d had a good time with them both, telling them about her house and the two students she’d met during first term. Her parents seemed pleased she’d made friends in an otherwise unfriendly house. Her father had given her a broom for Christmas. She’d put it in her trunk with a small shrinking spell in hopes to hide it from the other girls, as a rule stated that second years were not allowed brooms. She hated the girls she was sharing a room with, mostly because they were always casting their spells flashing their wands about with little pink stickers and such on them. Lyall had a wand now; she’d received it from the Ministry of Magic that day with instructions on how to use it, what it was made of, who to ask for help and also the safety instructions. Yes, she had safety instructions on her wand, simply because she was one of the rare few who were capable of using magic without a wand, but completely incompetent in using magic with a wand. Lyall smiled and rolled off her bed, going to her trunk. She fished out her wand and hugged it tightly to her chest, the white oak standing out against all the dark that was in the near vicinity. She looked at the paper from the Minister of Magic, reminding herself what it said. ‘Ten inches, white oak, Thread of a Dementor. I wonder why it has a Dementor thread…’ she whispered swishing the wand lightly through the air. She quirked as suddenly the curtains on the bed flew up and ripped off, following the movement of the wand. Frowning, the little girl put the wand in her belt and closed the luggage. She walked down into the common room again and sat down in a corner with some black leather sofas. She was wearing grey winter boots, her Slytherin scarf, the wool tights they received corresponding with the house she was in, along with the grey wool skit and the winter coat that they were permitted to have over their uniform. Sitting there quietly the child briefly wondered whether Casper or Thomas were going to be here this term.

The tall silhouette of Casper entered the common room yawning tiredly. Despite the time away from school, the dark rings around his silvery eyes confirmed he hadn’t slept properly in days. Even without the rings, the way he carried himself told of exhaustion. He was dragging his feet, hands in his pockets and his eyes watching his polished shoes. Without casting a single glance up around the common room he crossed it and headed for the dorms, hoping he’d manage passing the curious glances quickly enough so none would build up the courage to talk to him. He wasn’t quite feeling his usual outgoing and positive nature, and he doubted he’d manage keeping a mask for very long should someone be more annoying than usual. As he passed the black leather sofa’s by the stairs, he felt someone pricking his shoulder and he sighed inwardly before turning, his eyes locking onto the much smaller girl standing now right in front of him. “Casper LeStrange. Right?” The girl said, far too quick for it to seem confident. He nodded. “I’m Ophelia. Ophelia Jecker. Here.” She said and reached him a tiny box which he accepted with a rather surprised look upon his face. “It’s a Christmas gift. From us.” She gestured towards some giggling girls at the back of the common room, who all waved at him, some blushing. “Ehhr thank you very much. What did I do to deserve this fine gesture?” He asked and smiled the famous heart-melting smile of his, straightening up some. “We all think you’re… Pretty cute.” The girl mumbled and turned on her heel, running back to the others. Casper raised the box up into the air and grinned at them. “Thank you. All of you.” As he turned for the stairs, the happy face turned into eye-rolling, and the straight posture sunk back together.

Thomas Hunter walked into the room. He was carrying his back, obviously having spent his holidays at home. His face showed he wasn’t in the mood. He didn’t even give anyone his usual cold stare. He wandered upstairs, nearly as slowly as he could, to his dorm in order to unpack. The only thing he said was a ‘ello’ directed towards Casper and Lyall at the same time, not even looking at them and so quiet it was barely hearable. He even didn’t get annoyed at the giggling girls for a change, whom he usually would curse at and chase with his wand drawn. He was awfully calm for a change, not in the mood to do anything at all, apparently. He dropped onto his bed as soon as he had arrived at the dorm, and immediately fell asleep. His holidays had been exhausting too, but no one would know why. It wasn’t like Thomas ever planned on telling anyone anything at all.

Lyall smiled as both Thomas and Casper arrived but they both walked past too quickly for her to greet them properly. The young second grader rose however and ran after Casper, holding her wand high as she tugged at his sleeve, catching up to him quickly. ‘Casper! Casper, look! The Ministry got me a wand… and my dad, he got me a broom for Christmas, we can go flying!’ She said excited about being with the two boys again as she shot a mean glance towards the girls who’d given Casper the gift. They all stared back hatefully as they saw how easily she spoke to their crush. Beaming at the older boy she held her breath as she awaited his response to the information she’d given him, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn’t snap at her.

Casper inhaled quickly and turned around, and was about to give whoever had tugged at his sleeve a seriously long sentence of insults when he noticed it was Lyall standing in front of him. He let the air slowly out, his eyes flacking slightly confused as his brain put together what she had said. He then grinned brightly and without saying a thing, he lifted the tiny girl up and spun her around before putting her back down. “How wonderful, Lyall. Have you gotten to use either yet?” he asked curiously before choking another yawn. “I’m really not the best at flying. You might want to ask Hunter for that.” He then excused, picturing the incredibly painful experience he had come out for when he first flew. “I’d really like hanging out with you, but I’m awfully tired. Tomorrow, alright?” he said and gently patted her head.

Lyall smiled at him and nodded, “I'll go talk to Thomas then...” she walked past Casper and knocked on the door to Thomas' dorm. Her hand pushed it open and she peered around for her other 'friend'. She spotted him lying on the bed and walked over slowly, smiling as she did. Taking note that he was resting, Lyall sat on the end of the bed next to him and gently lifted a hand to push his hair away from his face. “You must be tired...” she whispered and put her hand down next to herself again. Her own hair was lying in her face but she didn't bother to push it away. She kicked her boots off at the end of the bed and perched herself at the bedpost, her eyes taking note of Thomas' face. She heard the door open and she gasped grabbing her boots and shoving herself under the bed holding her breath. The boys moved around then left again, not even saying a word to each other as they did this. When they left, Lyall crawled out again and stood up, patting her skirt down as she did. “Hey! What are you doing in here? Girls aren't allowed in the boys' dorm!” She jumped violently and turned to face the semi frightening prefect of Slytherin house. He peered at Thomas and then grabbed Lyall roughly, hauling her out of the room. Pushing her roughly down the stairs he pushed her onto a chair and frowned deeply. “You've been here almost two years, I'd expect you to remember the simple houserules! Dear god, Mortimer du Toit. You're a Slytherin, have some respect! I'll be reporting this to the Head of House... Now, go to your dorm and stay there for the remainder of the evening.” Lyall frowned deeply and stood up crossing her arms. “You can't order me about, you're just a prefect, not a family member or a teacher.” The prefect didn't like this and he yanked Lyall with him and forced her into the dorm. “I'll be informing him of that too”, he said grinning, before he left her in there with her dormmates looking at her oddly.

Thomas hadn’t noticed Lyall sneaking in his room, but the prefect was far too noisy to sleep through. He woke up the moment the prefect started pushing Lyall out of the dorm, but it took a few more seconds before he realized what was going on. He rose from his bed and slid out, still wearing his clothes. He didn’t bother to put on his shoes, but just walked towards the door and leant against the doorpost. “You’re awfully noisy”, he commented, in a low, deep and yet calm voice to the prefect, frightening him because he hadn’t heard Thomas coming closer. Before the prefect could excuse himself, Thomas shoved him aside and walked down. He clearly had put that short rest to good use and looked quite alert now. During the holidays, he had gotten a haircut and his hair had become lighter. He seemed rather cheerful, since he didn’t start waving his wand at the prefect that had annoyed him and cursing him. He lifted Lyall, probably surprising her by grabbing her from behind. “Lyall”, he greeted, throwing her up with a twirl and catching her again, so she was now facing him. He put her on the floor again. A few of the elder Slytherin girls – the ones from before – were whispering a few nasty things. They were jealous Lyall was such good friends with both Thomas and Casper, the two most desired men of Slytherin, perhaps except Draco Malfoy. “What were you doing, sneaking up to the dorm?” he questioned the girl as he put her down. He glanced at Casper, more or less blaming him with his gaze for having the girl being scolded. “You should’ve stopped her”, he remarked, not really in a blaming tone, just seemingly stating a fact. He wasn’t mad, which he usually would be. Something was making him happy instead of his usual moodiness.

“I-eh… I didn’t know. Notice. Until it was too late and I heard the-eh… Noise.” Casper mumbled, his brain not providing him with a half-rude comment like it used to. He looked rather awful, and he had to focus to get the words correct. He stood still for a while, his eyes going from Thomas to Lyall, and then back up at Thomas, as if he tried to make sense out of the way they stood. After concentrating some he gestured up towards the boys dorms- “I’ll be headed to bed now. I’m a tad tired.” He then walked past both Lyall and Thomas and up to his bed, and without even bothering to remove his shoes, he laid down on top of it, his fingers still locked around the gift-box. Seconds later he was sleeping, his left shoulder twitching now and then, and little by little his arm slid towards the edge of the bed until his arm hung down towards the floor and the gift-box fell out of his hand and rolled underneath the bed.

Lyall looked at the ground and kicked her feet at the floor. 'I uhm... I wanted to tell you about what I got for Christmas... Y'know... a Broom n... another thin- I'm sorry!' she looked at the floor as the other older Slytherin girls smirked. One walked over smoothly and put a hand on Lyall's shoulder. 'Hey, why don't you go to bed, Lyall? It's late and you're still a little gir-' Lyall removed the girl's hand like it was poisonous and back up standing with her back against Thomas. She took his hand tightly and smiled sweetly at the woman, 'That's a nasty mark on your hand, miss...' The girl looked down and screamed as a boil began to form, she scuttled over to the other girls who threw dirty glances at Lyall, who shot it back. Turning back to Thomas she hugged his waist and pulled him by his sleeve over to Casper. Taking both their hands she pulled them up to her dorm and stopped, 'Wait here...' she whispered barely able to contain her smile. Walking in she pulled her broom out and wand and mounted the broom. Gently she flew out of the room and past the boys hovering over the ground just slightly, sitting sideways on the transportation. Lifting her broom she cleared her throat and looked at them both, 'White Oak, Dementor Thread, ten inches.'

“A wand”, Thomas immediately remarked. His hand automatically found his own wand, but didn’t take it out of his pocket. Most wizards were stronger with wands, but not Lyall. Thomas knew, and found it only entertaining Lyall had punished the older girl by using her nonverbal, wandless magic. He remarked to the older girl: “I’d go see Miss Pomfrey, the school nurse, before that burn will become a scar.” He then turned towards Lyall again. “It’s a nice broom”, he remarked. “You should go out to fly soon.” He made short gesture with his hand, his shoes appearing right in front of him. He easily stepped inside them to put them on. “I’ll catch up with you later at the Quidditch field”, he said, walking towards the exit of the dorm. “I have something to do first.” Before they could protest or reply, he slid away, outside. He hadn’t even taken his broom with. Not that that would be much of a problem, because he knew the accio-spell. Thomas often looked up spells he didn’t know to study them, just to be able to use them later on. Some people rumored he even made up new spells. Whether that was true or not, nobody could tell. Nobody had cared to ask either way.

Mrs. Norris was purring in Filch's arms as she was being petted, glaring at all the students that passed by through the aisle.

“That’s wonderful, Lyall. You should catch up with Thomas later on. I don’t feel very well, so I’ll just head to bed and stay there for today.” He grinned and messed up Lyall’s hair before heading up to his dorm. Crossing the room to his bed he slipped off his shoes, fully aware someone would complain about it. He closed the curtains and sat down on his bed, pulling off his pants and throwing them onto the chair next to his bed. He then crept underneath the blankets and put his wand underneath his pillow, keeping his shirt on. After frantically wiggling a little, to warm it up, he made himself comfortable laying on the side. “Nox” He whispered, and the room got dark. Shortly after he slept dreamlessly.

Awaked from her nap spent basking in the sunlight upon a high up window shill, Chalice yawned, her feline fangs exposed to the air, her small breaths carried the scent of her last meal, a rather unlucky mouse who had been wandering about that night. 'poor scamperer.' Chalice mused to herself. 'but it really was a pleasing meal-- I wonder which of the two-leggers will feed me if I talk with them.' with thought though Chalice cleaned her teeth with her rough raspy tongue and pounced down upon the high back of one of the soft-sleep arm chairs, her tail witching slightly her slight hunger annoying.

In plain common-place matter-of-fact, then, it was a fine morning — so fine that you would scarcely have believed that the few months of summer had yet flown by. Hedges, fields, and trees, hill and moorland, presented to the eye their ever-varying shades of deep rich green; scarce a leaf had fallen, scarce a sprinkle of yellow mingled with the hues of summer warned you that autumn had begun. The sky was cloudless, the sun shining bright yet the typical English air held its iconic chill. The songs of birds, and hum of myriads of summer insects, filled the air; and the cottage gardens, crowded with flowers of every rich and beautiful tint, sparkled, in the heavy dew, like beds of glittering jewels. Everything bore the stamp of summer, and none of its beautiful colors had yet faded from the dye. Veronica’s nose itched from the scant scents of damp leaves of a brief summer’s rain, wrinkling her nose as she drew back the cigarette-smoke emanating slowly from her blackened lips, evaporating into the frigid English air. From her other hand she lightly held the binds of a book from Hogwarts library-opened to a Dickenson poem that created the very image within the mind’s eye that she opened her eyes to see. “Nature is what we see—The Hill—The afternoon—Squirrel---Eclipse---the Bumble bee---Nay—Nature is Heaven---“ As she spoke the words of the poet smoke continued to ebb from her lips, surrounding the words in a thick grey cloud. The silvery twigs rustled in the wind as it breezed through the array of leaves, gently gracing their delicate skeletal structures, emanating a gentlest of tones that cast a melodic sound upon the winds; Veronica’s long ebony locks of hair tugged high in a ponytail, ringlets of curls cascading down her back, the sun glinting off the fluo lenses, as green as the summer green, slim figure clad in black jeans and a vest which barely concealed her slender breasts. “Nature is what we hear—The bobolink—the Sea—Thunder---The Cricket—Nay—Nature is Harmony—Nature is what we know---Yet have no art to say---So impotent Our Wisdom is—“ She snorted, stubbing the rest of her cigarette against to the castle wall she leaned against; Pushing off the wall, the book tucked under her arm, Veronica sauntered back through the castle, abandoning the clarity of the outer gardens to the gloomy halls within the castle. The journey to the Slytherin room was quiet, no students desired to huddle around the walls but had taken to sitting before the roaring fires within their own house rooms. Veronica stepped through the painting that allowed passage to the common room of the slytherins. Slumping onto the couch and opening her book to the page she’d been on, falling back into the realm of classic poetry.

Jake’s slender hand was shivering as it reached for the tiny mirror. He held his breath, hesitating at taking a glance at his own reflection. Before forcing his eyes onto the mirror, he let them wander over the calming surroundings of the library, the restricted section. He had always enjoyed the peace and quiet the library provided, and except from himself, there were only a few other regulars. He gasped, his free hand rising to his face, except it was no longer his face. His usual tan skin had gotten a dark blue, his ears had turned pointy. He opened his mouth slightly, and couldn’t help but gape fascinated at the fangs in his mouth. He tucked a strand of snow white, long hair behind his air and laughed slightly before shooting a glance down at the opened book next to him. The book was a children’s’ book, and was opened on a page where there was a description of a night-elf along with a digital painting of it. Footsteps came towards him, quickly, and he spun around closing the books displayed around him and throwing them into his bag. He threw the bag over his shoulder and started moving along the wall out of the restricted section, his appearance slowly turning back to normal. As he was about to sigh in relief he was grabbed by his neck and he jumped, uttering a low yelp. “Chill, will you Jake. It’s just me.” Jake frowned at his friend and gave him a gentle push. “You scared the hell out of me.” His friend only grinned, and soon he heard hushed giggling from the different corners of the library. He glanced back at his friend whom was about to burst out in laughter. “What? Austin, why are you all laughing at me? It’s not funny.” At that Austin really did start laughing, and it took Jake a moment to realize his skin was still blue. “Oh lord in heaven.” He yelped and covered his face, his skin quickly returning to its’ normal tan, perhaps a shade of red blush across his cheeks. The embarrassment he felt at that moment also reflected in his honey-blonde hair, which had gotten slightly more alike a strawberry-blonde. “Just. Get me out of here.” He said and pushed his laughing friend ahead and out of the library, doing his best to walk behind him so more people wouldn’t stop and stare.

Chalices tail twitched as a new figure entered the common room, bring with her faint scents of outside, something she longed for, though masking the pleasure and beauty of the bounty this woman could have brought in with her was the air coying breath steaming stench of smoke --Air-stealer-breath Her ears flattened as she flexed her claws from their sheaths to knead the head rest of the chair she had landed upon, the whiskers of her nose twitching slightly the scents the woman had brought into this damp musty castle had been spoilt. Chalice rarely had the chance to explore much further than the confinement of the common room and the multiple dorms branching away, only once had she slipped past the picture. --- painting guardian who moved; traitor to inquisitive cats-- and her freedom had been short lived due to the figure in the painting reporting to those whose company she had only just escaped that their cat had indeed got itself free. a small growl built up in her chest. dropping down from the highest point of the headrest to nestle herself atop the right arm-rest she resigned herself to licking her right paw and scrapping it across her face, cleaning time she though, clear away the horrid ---air-stealer-breath-- smell. her large eyes roaming the rest of the room, intent of finding the objective for at least some part of her day, yesterday had been the tassels which had adorned the large --sunlight blocking warmth snatcher--- drapes they hadn't lasted her destructive nature and had become like more than torn; tattery ---dead once was toys--- seeing nothing that caught her eyes and made a strange sound; a cats cough.

Saiph scratched behind his ear with his toes. Being a wolf was easy to get to spots a human couldn’t reach that easily. He howled lowly, shaking his head and wagging his tail. He loved hunting in the forbidden forest. Saiph was an animagus, just like his father. He had been taught at a young age what the consequences could be. Today, he was one of the few illegal animagi, still refusing to go to the ministry. Saiph used hunting to get rid of the countless thoughts and frustrations that spun through his head. The white wolf rushed outside the forest, passing Hagrid’s house while he transformed back into the young Gryffindor of before. He and Hagrid both had silently agreed on keeping it a secret, after Saiph had once saved Fang from some of the spiders that lived in the forest. Ever since Aragog had found his significant other, a female spider called Shelob, the spiders had turned rather hostile on Hagrid and his friends. Saiph casually walked back into the main hall of Hogwarts, noticing Filch and Mrs. Norris lurking about – they were literally everywhere you didn’t want to have them lurking around. He made a low, daring growl at the cat – he didn’t like cats, as he was rather wolfish. Lately, there was much to be on his mind, the past events and the holidays had brought much more tension to his usually so boring life. He went down the Great Hall to have his second meal, the first being hunting. When he passed the Slytherin table, he returned them their common hateful glare, but for a change didn’t start a fight with Thomas Hunter, who was sitting there too. They made short eye contact, and an awfully hateful glare was exchanged, but nothing more. Usually they’d have thrown a few insults towards each other, but not today. Both seemed too tired, too much occupied with their own lives and happenings during the holidays to be bothered by the other. Saiph sat down next to his fellow Gryffindor friends, and finally started his old routine of scolding Slytherins again. “I really don’t want to go to potion class, unless it were to put Snape’s robes on fire”, he nagged, his purple eyes narrowed. His white hair was messy, a few branches and leaves indicating he had just been outside. As Thomas Hunter, the seventh year Slytherin, passed their tables on his way to the dungeons, he noticed: “Nice making out with the tree, Black.”

Lyall sighed. She currently had a lot of energy she needed to get rid of, so she mounted her broom once more and stuffed her wand behind her ear before shooting out of the Slytherin common room. The little girl smiled, lightly hovering over the ground as she flew about the corridors. A wiff caught her nose and she turned around violently as she flew past the great Hall. She spotted Thomas and her smile became a grin. Dismounting her broom she ran inn deciding she wanted to talk to him, unfortunately as she ran past the Gryffindor table and knocked her broom into someone else. She turned around and let out a squeak as she caught the Gryffindor’s eye. They were purple, much to her surprise and she stopped her wand dropping under the table of the other house. ‘I.. I’m so sorry, I was running to my friend-‘ she pointed at Thomas, ‘- and I forgot I had my broom, please I-‘ she stopped and held her breath as she looked up again, before realizing her broom had fallen to the floor. ‘I’ll uhm…’ she went quiet and awaited the string of swearwords. She spotted her Cousin Lioslaith Myrall du Toit in Ravenclaw watching her carefully. Lioslaith was in another branch of the du Toit family, causing her to be incredibly protective of Lyall. The little second year peered at the ground again and put her broom down leaning under the table to get her wand, ‘accio…’ she tried knowing it wouldn’t really move. It did however, but just an inch. Getting frustrated she crawled under the table and grabbed it only to have someone on the table sharply put their foot down on her arm. 'Ow!! Get off! Get off!’ Shaking her arm loose she pulled out and straightened her hair, and robes even though she still wasn’t wearing the school uniform. She frowned at the Gryffindors and bent to pick up her broom, which was now gone. Behind her, Lioslaith was starting to stand up but the other Ravenclaws stopped her from going to the aid of her cousin. Lyall crossed her arms and looked at them all, her plat falling over to her back. ‘I wouldn’t mind an apology… that was rude and it hurt.’ No one answered her and the little girl’s eyes began to water up slightly as the constant staring began to frighten her, ‘Could... my broom, one of you took it could I get it back?’ A Hufflepuff rose up and smiled at the Gryffindors, ‘Come on guys, she’s only a second year, give the girl her broom back…’ Her request was met with snorts of laughter and she sat down again at the table. A mumbling started around the great hall at the rudeness of the Gryffindors, but everyone would rather side with them than the Slytherin house. Lyall looked at the floor and held her wand tightly in her hands as she tried to think of a way to get out of this sort of scary situation.

As Saiph's eyes caught hers, Mrs. Norris would narrow her golden eyes slightly, sensing his rather hostile attitude towards her and her dear Filch with the instincts that she had as a cat. Slightly opening up her nostrils, her yellowish white whiskers would somewhat spread out as she made eye contact with Saiph, but it was merely with the intention of showing the couple of lower millimeters of her blickering teeth. As a cat, Mrs. Norris had the teeth of a predator and she did not mind showing those off either, especially not towards the students that she could not stand, whose guts she and Filch hated. Lurking around in the Hogwarts castle, she knew about everything that happened around there, and who were the naughty students or not. Not as if they would get any present from Santa Claus anyway, as wizards in the first place would not believe in that man, but it could cost their House, whichever house they belonged to, enough points to matter at the end of the year, when the end rating was on and the flags in the Great Hall would be decorated by the flags of the winning house. Mrs. Norris decided that it was time to split up from Filch, so that he could lurk around in another of the countless aisles or rooms of Hogwarts than she, and they would have more chance to spot another naughty student and notify one of the teachers of the school about it. She shortly flicked her one ear, a gesture that took merely a second for her, and Filch had already realized what she felt like doing, the bend through his old knees and carefully put her on the cold stone ground with all four of her paws. As her owner then stood up again, after shortly caressing the fur of her back in a notion of goodbye, she would blink and turn around, in the arrogant way cats never seem to care about humans, but as an indication that she would be paying attention well to what happened around there. With short catty steps, Mrs. Norris would go down the aisle towards the stairs that leaded downwards, to explore more of the dungeons. As she walked, she would also slowly flick her tail to the left and right, as she held her whiskers spread out to catch everything, and her ears up to not miss a single sound. Her amber eyes were wide open and her pupils were small, giving them a look that students who were afraid of her appearance would describe with words such as 'vindicious' and 'demonic'. She did not care, however, students had better to watch their step as they roamed around the aisles of Hogwarts. She lifted her fluffy tail high up in pride and slightly sadistic happiness as she noticed a couple of second years step aside when she came down the stairs, releasing a short and soft purring sound because of the knowledge of the aura that she gave off, especially towards the younger students.

Jake walked alongside Austin; headed for the great hall. They were both grinning at the episode in the library, and as they passed a couple girls in the hall, Austin found it for good to push Jake into one of them, resulting in the girl dropping all of her things. “I’m so terribly sorry. I got this jerk on a leash, and sometimes he can’t help himself but pounce forwards or to the side. It’s possible he fancy you.” Jake said quickly, grinning as he gestured towards Austin. He then started helping the girl pick up her things while she was busy checking up Austin. “Again. I’m so sorry.” Jake smiled politely at her, and placed a note with Austin’s’ number on top of the pile of things in her arms. “Be sure to give him a call.” He then pushed a gaping Austin forwards, and after a couple steps he started laughing. “That’s what you get for pushing me into someone.” Austin gave him an expression that made him look as if he was in serious pain. “But she was so ugly!” Austin mouthed at him as they entered the great hall. Jake only laughed. That was until he noticed the Slytherin girl with her broom on the ground, standing in front of Saiph. Jake stepped forwards, but was held back by Austin. “You do not want to get in between Saiph and a Slytherin, kid.” Austin told him. “What’s her name?” Jake replied. Austin gave him a rather questioning glance; “Lyall. Lyall Mortimer du Toit. Why? You’re not seriously considering…” Before Austin could finish Jake had started walking towards Lyall at a rather quick pace. As he reached her, he bent down and picked up her broom. “Lyall! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You were supposed to be at the quidditch field twenty minutes ago.” He then started tugging her out of the great hall, giving Saiph an excusing glance.

Saiph felt how the little girl bumped into him, not immediately realizing she was a Slytherin. At first, he didn’t really care – he didn’t hold a grudge towards any little girl – but then he realized she was one of them. But before he could snarl nasty things at her, another man was standing in front of him. He acted like they knew each other quite well. “Quidditch, hm”, he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Care to explain why a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff go to quidditch together?” He placed his hand on Jake’s shoulder, giving him an awful deep stare into his eyes, as if he tried to warn the other not to cross him with excuses anymore. But at that moment, Jake could feel someone else stand beside him. It was Hunter, of course. He just couldn’t stand by and watch how that filthy Gryffindor was grumping at Lyall. He didn’t say a word, just grabbed Saiph’s wrist and pulled it off Jake. Saiph was forced to look into Thomas’ eyes. His upper lip curled a little, showing his sharp teeth as a wolf that was being threatened. “Let it go”, Thomas finally said, extremely quiet. Saiph didn’t seem to want to obey, but Thomas continued: “I’m serious, Saiph. Let. It. Go.” It didn’t sound threatening at all, yet the Gryffindor backed off. It was one of the few times Thomas would actually use Saiph’s first name. Saiph growled lowly and turned around to leave the Great Hall. Thomas reached out his hand, used a nonverbal accio spell on the broom and gave it back to Lyall. “Be careful”, he warned her, then turned towards Jake. “You have my gratitude”, he said to him, obviously thankful that Jake had stood up for Lyall.

Whilst Lyall was being led out of the Great Hall and Lioslaith Myrell du Toit could see that she was once again in safe hands she walked over the table and stood with her face almost pressed into Saiph's. 'Saiph Black, how dare ye even think aboot threatening ma cousin? She's just a wee lassie! Just twelve. So don't ye dare hurt her just because she got sorted into tha Slytherin House, both her mither and faither are Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw ye know.' She was cross, which was the biggest reason her Scottish accent stuck out too much. Lioslaith was a sixth year and had a lot of very frizzly curly plum colored hair with bright green eyes. She wore the uniform of a standard Ravenclaw and her looks and intellect matched. She didn't like the Gryffindors, in fact she was one of the few who didn't want them to be put on a throne. 'Ye kind are all the same. Ye think you are tha gods, because ye got into tha Gryffindor house, but yer wrong, so get down from yer high horse and sit on the ground with tha rest of us, because if a see you near ma wee cousin again, a won't hesitate to curse your backside back to tha dark ages so tha you could see just how unclean ye faimily really be.' she poked Saiph sharply with her wand and put her hands on her hips, a deep, deep frown on her face. In the meantime Lyall was still in the hands of Jake who had pulled her out of the messy situation. With her broom back and her wand in a safe place she shook herself free and began to jog after the older boy, ‘Thank you for helping me.’ She said smiling at him even though he was still walking; she noted that they were still going towards the quidditch field. ‘Uhm, I can’t join the team can I? I know I shouldn’t be asking you since you’re not a Slytherin, but uhm…’ she was unable to finish as she began to stumble over her own feet and she stopped looking at the boy, ‘What’s your name?’ she tried waiting for him to respond. She remember seeing her Cousin Lioslaith poking her wand at the boy she’d bumped into and briefly wondered if he was still the same gender, or even still human. Lioslaith was a terrifying charm (and secretly curse) master. ‘Thank you?’ she tried again before running up and standing in front of the older boy, a faint smile on her lips as her misty blue eyes stared up at him, with some random strains of brown hair started to fall into her face.

Jake finally stopped and couldn’t help but stare at his feet. The wave of courage that had come over him when spotting Lyall in trouble had vanished, and he was back to being his usual self, which often had him overlooked. “It, it was nothing. Was only what everyone else should’ve done. No-one should be bullied just because they’re placed in another house.” He finally dared glancing back at Thomas, whom not surprisingly was much taller and stronger than himself. Jake couldn’t count the endless attempts at making himself grow taller but to no use. He had remained rather small. His lack of muscle and his small frame didn’t help making him seem less fragile either. “Thank you, Thomas” He said and swallowed nervously before smiling faintly at Lyall. “I’m, I’m Jake. Jake Tinker. Just take care Lyall, and try avoiding Saiph. I should be heading back to…” Austin had already grabbed hold of his hand and tugged him away. “Bye!” Jake called before turning around and following Austin to the Hufflepuff table, where everyone automatically started scolding him for getting in between Saiph and Thomas. “You dimwit! Even you should know better than to meddle in those two’s affairs. You better stay away from Saiph now, and other Gryffindor’s for that matter, if you plan on getting yourself through the fifth year.” Austin hissed at him. Jake felt himself sunk deep down into his chair, his hair turning slightly purple with his gloomy mood.

Thomas stayed put for a few seconds, realizing he caused fear to the other’s – Jake’s – friend. It wasn’t but a while after he’d realize that was his reputation. He sighed. He never had wanted to be frightening, just to be left alone. “We’ll go for quidditch after eating”, he said to Lyall, still looking at the backs of the two men that just left. “And stay away from that Gryffindor.” He turned towards Lyall as he said that, giving her a stern glance, warning her with it. “I have eaten already, so you go ahead and eat while I go get my broom.” He turned towards the door, still continuing: “I’ll meet you at the quidditch field.” Then, he walked out of the Great Hall with large paces, as if he were in a hurry. Not that Lyall would arrive before Thomas at the field anyway, since she still had to eat, so in fact he had all the time in the world. He easily slid back to the Slytherin dorms to fetch his broom. He ruffled through his stuff, quietly, not to wake up Casper who was still sleeping there. He looked at the other Slytherin. Usually he wasn’t as peaceful, Thomas remarked in silence. He stood up, holding his broom in his right hand, and left the dorm again, leaving a note for Casper that mentioned him and Lyall being on the quidditch field if needed. When he arrived at the main hall, a voice from the shadows called for his attention. “Now that was… uncalled for.” Saiph’s purple eyes flickered in excitement. Thomas frowned. “I’m on my way to the quidditch field, if you don’t mind”, he said, only a frown discarding him from his neutral expression. “Come now”, Saiph replied provokingly. “I bet you still have time… for a duel.”

Once left alone, Lyall ran quickly to the Great Hall and past everyone else. A couple Gryffindors threw spells at her but they were countered by Slytherins. She grabbed a piece of bread and sat down biting into it quickly. It wasn't until a few seconds later that she realized she was sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Lioslaith sat next to her with a soft smile on her lips. 'Ye be eatin that quite quickly. Are ye goin oot to the Quidditch pitch with tha other Hufflepuff boy? Didn't know ye was friends with tha other houses, seein that you were a Slytherin an all.' Lyall smiled at her cousin and gave her a light hug. 'Ah feef tha I cwold go weff in quidditch an-' she swallowed before continuing, gulping down the juice. '- and madam Hooch said that when I was stronger with my spell that I should try it!' She took a breath and rose up quickly losing her balance as she did. Lioslaith grabbed her and smiled at the younger du Toit. 'Calm down, wee one. The Quidditch Pitch won't be runnin no where.' Lyall however nodded virgously and grabbed her broom, running out again and down the hall. Before long she was out the door and stumbling down her way to the field, taking a shortcut past Hagrid's house. 'Calm down, miss du Toit! Your parents will be furious is they see yer hurt again!' he called as she stumbled past his house. Lyall waved at him and jumped onto her broom while running and flew quickly over to the pitch, wizzing through the hoops. There was another team practicing there but she ignored them as she flew down into the Slytherin changing rooms. Seeing that there was no one there she snuck over to the equipment cupboard and pulled it open. Inside was the standard uniform for the Slytherin Quidditch players. She grabbed the shirt, pants, shoes and goggles before throwing her uniform off and dressing quickly. She knew this was technically stealing but at the moment she was so incredibly excited at being able to fly on the quidditch team, or fly at all. Lyall had always had an unexplainable passion for the sport, begging her deceased older brother to take her with him to the Quidditch World Cup when he went. She sighed and grabbed her broom and wand again, smiling lightly as she sat down outside the changing rooms and waited for Thomas.

Casper rolled over for the billionth time, and it seemed gravity finally had decided to give him the extra push he needed to fall out of bed. He woke up instantly due to the shock of having the air knocked out of his lunges, and despite the cramps causing him to curl into a ball; the usual line of swear-words still managed getting through his gritted teeth. Shortly after he crawled back up in bed, and was about to return to his sleep when he spotted the note left by Thomas. “Quidditch. Right.” He then shot a glance at the alarm-clock and groaned. It was time to get up, or he wouldn’t be able to sleep later on. With painfully slow movements he dragged his clothes back on, and for the first time since he started, he didn’t care that his tie wasn’t knit perfectly or that his hair wasn’t laying in that perfectly formed style that he was known for. If anything he looked as if he had slept with his clothes on and not bothered doing anything with it. He pulled out his wand from beneath his pillow and headed out of the Slytherin common room, whispering students suddenly having something to gossip about. They were all wondering what had happened to him to make Casper not look groomed. He could hear someone mention something about hanging out too much with Thomas Hunter, and that had him grin. How he’d love to tell Thomas just that. When he got outside, he cast a quick spell on his shoes, enabling him to make each step worth a hundred, and so the way to the quidditch field went a lot faster than normal. He spotted Lyall almost instantly and slumped down next to her. “Excited?” He asked and grinned at her. “Is Thomas late or?” He then asked, as he hadn’t seen Thomas yet.

Thomas arrived not much later at the quidditch field. His hair looked awfully messy, some hairs were even standing straight up. His clothes were messy. He started arranging them immediately, dropping his broom on the grass to have his hands free. He was still in his uniform, when he suddenly figured Lyall wasn’t. He stopped every movement and just stared at her for a blank second. “Stole the Slytherin uniform, hm?” he then noticed, starting to arrange his clothes again. “Sorry I’m late, Saiph delayed me and he asked for another duel, so I had to take him first.” He glanced at Casper, noticing he was there too. “You’re up, I see”, he said, a faint smirk appearing on his face, then added: “I hope the teachers don’t figure out it was I and Saiph who ruined the classrooms at the northern part of the castle.”

Lyall had mounted her broom the minute she saw Thomas and stood hovering 100% ready to begin. Her wand was in her robes too, not because she needed it, but because she wanted it near her now that she had one. She didn't wait for either boys and kicked off the ground flying into the air. Lyall just flew around in circles doing small tricks while she waited. The wind brushed her hair about wildly and she took in a breath as she began to climb higher and higher into the sky. The other people who were on the pitch flew by her and she recognized them as Hufflepuffs. She stopped and watched them fly by her in a flawless formation, until one stopped right in front of her. It was a girl, and she was smirking at the apparent younger of the two. That was until Lyall realised who it was. 'Victoria? You're on the Hufflepuff quidditch team?!' she said in a shocked high pitched tune, causing the other second year girl to laugh loudly. 'Daddy paid the school, I've been here since the first year. You're still trying out? Just like in Defense against the Dark Arts. Oh Lyall you're such a laugh, being from the du Toit Clan and not being able to use magic. Toodles!' The girl flew off and Lyall, briefly felt her heart clench before she shot after the other second year in a flash kicking her off her broom. 'I can use magic!' She screeched and pulled out her wand. 'Fiendfyre!' she called only to realize her mistake second later when the giant bird of inferno entered the space of which the two girls inhabited. Lyall's eyes shot open and she dropped from the sky like a rock hitting the ground quickly and running over to Thomas and Casper mumbling and apology and simultaneously trying to explain that they needed to fix something.

“Least my hair’s up.” Casper grinned at Thomas and ruffled through the white strands of hair pointing in every direction. “Sex-hair suits you.” He smirked, joking. He then tried to tame his own hair without any luck. “Wish I could say the same.” His eyes then flicked up at Lyall, and a frown automatically crept across his nose as he spotted the Hufflepuff girl fronting Lyall. “That kid’s getting in more trouble than you.” He turned to Thomas, grinning. Turning back to watch Lyall his mouth dropped, and his skin somehow managed to get even paler than it already was. “Ehhhh, Hunter.” He pointed at the inferno bird in the sky and then at Lyall diving down and running towards them. With a rather desperate glance upon his face he once again turned to Thomas, his throat dry. “I can’t. I can’t fly. “He left the sentence hanging, and for once he felt rather helpless. Heights was one of the few fears he had yet to overcome, and now wasn’t the time he had planned on confronting it.

Thomas sighed as he threw a ‘you don’t say’-glance at Casper. “I’ve never even seen anyone that got in so much trouble”, he commented, hovering his hand above his broom. “Up”, he commanded. It flopped obediently to his hand. But instead of stepping on it, he just threw the broom in the distance, making it fly at about a meter above the ground. “Be right back”, he said to Casper the moment his body came in motion. He straightforwardly ran towards the bird, leaving his broom flying about. He controlled it from a distance, keeping it ready for when he actually intended to fly. He pulled his wand, reaching the place where the bird was flying in the air. At that moment, a giant white and gray wolf passed Casper. It ran as if its tail was on fire. It sprinted towards the broom and jumped. In mid-air, the wolf changed into Saiph. He was a remarkably good flyer, aiming straightforwardly at the infernal bird, leaving Thomas standing still on the ground. The Slytherin was watching his rival rather surprised. Saiph made the broom twirl around the bird, waving his wand while doing so. A stream of ice cold water followed his flying, and the bird was caught in the water. As soon as he had left the bird, Saiph dove down, grabbing the two girls by their uniforms – with each hand a girl – and dragged them down. He easily landed near Casper and Lyall, reaching out the broom at the surprised Thomas that came running towards them.

Lyall kept apologizing, now crying as she began to realize what she'd tried to do. She continuously mumbled and tugged at her sleeve and bit her lip. She could hear people screaming as the fire bird could be seen from the castle. Loosing up however at both Saiph and Thomas she gaped as the two wizards. The young witch blushed deeply as she realized how stupid sending that curse was and she turned her face to Casper tears still lingering in her eyes, 'Cas -Casper. I'm sorry, I'm so, so, so sorry, I didn't realize that'd happen, please forgive me, please don't tell the headmaster, or anything please, dear god please not my parents...' she started to panic and she sat down catching her breath as she let her eyes wonder up to Saiph again, briefly she began to admire the Gryffindor for helping her with the situation. Unfortunately the Hufflepuffs where not so forgiving. Victoria stormed over to Lyall and shoved her sharply onto the ground pointing her wand at her. 'You- You wrench! How dare you try to curse me!! I should return the favor you worthless Squib!!!' This shocked Lyalls system and she kicked the girls leg sharply in defense. Rising up, the 12-years-old stared down angrily at the Hufflepuff, before grabbing the girl's wand and smirking. There was total silence the seconds before the wand snapped and Lyall savored it. The Hufflepuff screamed as the wood splintered and Lyall through it into her face before stalking over to Casper and hugging him. She then thrust her hand out and stared at her broom. “Accio, broom”, she hissed and in a second the wooden transport was back in her hands. The girl smiled and turned to look at the three boys a sickly looking expression quivering at the corner of her smile, “Let’s get back to practice, eh?”

Just as Casper was about to lean back and watch Thomas clean up Lyall’s rather beautiful mess, according to him, he sat straight back up as he saw the wolf fly past him. He felt the goose bumps crawl up his spine and he automatically frowned in disgust as he took in who it was. Watching as Saiph put out the fire with some spell he hadn’t seen before and bringing both the girls down safely, he couldn’t help but feel slightly grateful towards the Gryffindor whom he’d felt nothing but disgust for before. The change in emotion he felt had is mood darken and his expression quickly turned into that scary calculating mask only Thomas and a few unfortunate others had seen before. It lasted only for a brief moment, as it changed as soon as Lyall started ranting out apologies at him. At that moment when his emotions changed, one could truly see the two-faced side of Casper. “Shhh, Lyall.” He said calmly. “We won’t tell anyone, now will we? Saiph.” Casper tilted his head at the Gryffindor and a sly smile crept onto his lips at the right corner. He then turned to Thomas and grinned, his cheerful mood back. “Looks like you got beaten by a Gryffindor. You’ll have to fix that.” He watched as Lyall sat down and how the Hufflepuff girl came at her. To him it seemed as if everything went over in slow motion, and it wasn’t until he stood with his wand prepared that he regained focus of what had happened, and that the situation had already passed. Realizing this had him step backwards slightly, and all of a sudden he seemed rather ill, as if he was about to throw up. “Ehh… You go back to practice. I… I’ll just sit here. For a while.” And then his knees gave out beneath him and he fell straight down onto the grass on all fours. He sat back and buried his head in his hands, light shivers causing his shoulders to shake now and then as if he had caught a proper fever.

Saiph seemed to want to snap at Casper, but Thomas rose his hand to shut him up, which in fact seemed quite effective. Two people – professor Snape and Filch – came rapidly rushing from over the green grass field towards them. “What in Dumbledore’s beard is going on here?” Snape furiously hissed to the six of them, scaring the Hufflepuff girls to death. Filch lurked from behind the black cloak of the Bat-like teacher. Saiph glanced at Thomas, who returned his emotionless glance. Before anyone could say a word, Saiph had taken the lead: “Hunter and I had a… different opinion… on which house will prevail at the end of the year, professor.” He had a daring look and a mocking grin on his face, not shy about lying to protect both Lyall and the two Hufflepuff girls. Snape glared, dangerously mad at Saiph. “You”, he said, poking in Saiph’s chest “Dumbledore’s office. Now. And it’ll cost you fifty points.” Saiph nodded obediently and walked off, humming the Hogwarts chant, much to Snape’s agitation.

Snape looked at the remaining people – the Hufflepuffs had rushed off as soon as they saw their chance – and had a stare contest with Thomas, or something that resembled a stare-contest at least. Without saying a word, Snape turned around and walked off, his cloak being tugged at by the wind. Thomas squatted down next to Casper. “You should go to the school nurse”, he said, taking Casper’s arm and wrapping it around his shoulder. He pulled Casper up, wrapping his own arm around the boy’s waist. “You should get changed, Lyall”, he said to the girl. “I’ll meet you back at the dorm.” He took off, mainly carrying Casper towards Mrs. Pomfrey, the school nurse. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, dragging Casper on the stairs. “Did something happen while I was away?” He changed his grip, lifting Casper in his arms like a groom would carry his bride in traditions. He easily carried him all the way up to the school nurse, clearly worried about what had happened to Casper.

Lyall was still angry, but she buried it deep inside her so that Thomas and Casper would remain clueless to her next intent. The Hufflepuffs had left and in truth so had everyone else. Lyall was complete alone and to celebrate this, she kicked off the ground and rose into the skies. She respected both Thomas and Casper, she cared for them even if they didn't about her, but sometimes she got so angry that they could use magic like it was a toy, she wished for so badly that she was just like them, like her parents. Deep, deep down, Lyall hated Slytherin with a passion not even Saiph could rival, she knew this because every time someone treated her like trash just because her robes where silver and green, she'd mentally kill them, over and over. And today was the first time she'd got close to doing it. She shuddered at the realization that she was so close to being rid of one of those bothersome people. While musing like this Lyall hadn't realized she'd started flying over the Forbidden Forest. Briefly she had an idea and the child began to fly low over the outskirts of the woods. Dropping down she whipped out her wand and stared angrily at the dark trees that lay below her. There were students trotting near the edge, probably fifth graders. She flew lower and stopped over them as they began to chat loudly, giggling and holding onto one another. It was then Lyall saw the red scarves and she quirked a cruel grin, 'Sectumsempra...' she hissed sharply and the screaming ensued as the little girl flew away, seemingly reverted back to her carefree innocent little mind, the cruelty that'd lingered before no longer visible. She flew past the Great hall and many students waved at her as she did. The little girl didn't wave back as she landed and ran inside suddenly realizing that Casper was sick. Skidding into the infirmary she wasn't sure if they were there or not, but she stepped in anyway, even if the cleaning smell made her feel queasy.

“Hunter. The infirmary. Don’t. Please. Just get. My bed. Sleep.” Casper managed forcing out, although his vision was blurred and he felt as if he wasn’t going to manage staying awake for much longer. He felt as if he was swimming, struggling to keep his head above the dark grey choking smoke-water, and now and then his head ducked under. “I can’t. Go. They might see. I can’t. I can’t.” He mumbled against Hunter, not really aware that he was being carried. Had he been less reduced, he probably would’ve kicked himself out of his arms. It took him some time to figure out what Thomas had asked him, and even more time to make some sort of sense in his reply. “I’m fine. Tired. I need sleep. Nothing happened” And then he made a sound much like laughter mixed with groaning before suddenly throwing his eyes up wide, seemingly fully awake. “Let go of me, let go of me! I have to finish it. He’ll be pleased with me. He’ll be happy.” Casper started kicking and hitting, trying to wiggle his way out of Thomas’ grip. It was as if he was having a feverish dream, and couldn’t quite decide what was real and what was his own imagination. The fever didn’t allow his normal strength come forth though, which made his attempts at getting loose rather weak.

Thomas frowned, worried about Casper’s ‘dreaming’. He kicked open the door to an empty classroom and dropped Casper on top of a desk. “Casper”, he hissed “Snap out of it and just tell me what’s going on. I saved you from getting busted when you killed someone. I… covered that for you. There’s not much I shall not cover for you, there’s not much worse than what you’ve already done.” He ripped open Casper’s shirt, waving his wand about as he created some sort of a time-loop, giving Casper a delay of whatever was putting those strange symptoms upon him. He decided he couldn’t wait for Casper to speak the truth, nor to force it out of him. “Legilimens”, he whispered, penetrating the other’s mind mercilessly. Just like Lord Voldemort, he was awfully skilled in reading and controlling one’s mind. For some reason, him penetrating Casper’s thoughts went even easier than with ‘normal’ people. He frowned as he delved deeper into the thoughts and memories of his friend, feeling slightly guilty while doing so.

Casper’s body stilled and went almost limp as Thomas forced himself into his mind and found a memory. The memory portrayed itself as Casper himself had experienced it; Darkness with a thin gleam of light at the corner of the window having been closed with planks. The smell of coagulated blood mixed with new, and the smell of rotten flesh, dirt. Silence and the sound of liquid dripping down onto a pool on the floor. Rats crawling across the floor and chewing through the remaining’s of those the flesh belonged to. Thin arms, almost anorectic wrapped around knees draped in bloody and holy pants. Bare, cold feet pulled up against the boys chest at one of the few spots that had remained dry in what seemed to be a cellar. The boy was shivering, cold and scared. He was crying, but only now and then the hushed sobs came out of the boys shivering lips. Time passed slowly and the boy tried to avoid moving. His back stung intensely from several infected wounds that he so desperately wanted to claw at, and the much too big sweater was clinging to his fragile frame, stained with blood. Some of the threads from the sweater had started growing into the wounds, and the boy knew from experience he’d have to pull them out himself. He closed his silvery eyes, buried his head against his knees. The door opened. Gasping the boy tried to hide away in the corner, making himself as small as possible. He heard the clicking noise of a woman’s’ boots. “Bring in the filthy creature!” Bellatrix LeStrange’s voice echoed throughout the cellar. She laughed, grabbing hold of the boys long white-blonde locks of hair, pulling him up. He cried out. She hit him. The man Bellatrix had talked to entered the cellar with a small woman, seemingly terrified and unable to move. The man pushed her onto the floor and the woman tried desperately to get herself up but her hands and feet slipped in the blood and she fell onto her stomach before she tried to crawl away from his mother. “Cruciate!” His mother’s voice calling out with glee, and the woman twitching in pain. The boy covered his eyes with his hands and cried harder. Without stopping the curse, Bellatrix would pull away her sons’ hands, putting a wand in his. “Come on now, Caspy. You know what to do. Put her out of her misery.” The boy looked up at his mother in horror, his hand shivering now more than ever. “I don’t want to. Stop it mom, you’re hurting her! Stop it!” Bellatrix hit her son across the face. “Do it! Or I will bring more people down here. I will kill them all.” Casper reached his wand out against the woman who was still screaming and whimpering in pain. Her eyes met his for a moment, and the boy heard himself call out; “Avada kedavra!” The scenery changed then. Several alike memories. There was something wrong with them. At several parts within them, something seemed to lack, as if his memory had been tampered with. The next clear memory was at an entire other place. The boy was older, much older. He was standing at the corner of a meeting-room, well groomed and dressed up. His head was tilted down and his eyes closed. He was listening to the people conversing. Bellatrix. Lucius Malfoy. A couple others. The door went up and he heard his mother jump to her feet, sounding happy for once as she spoke; “My lord~” Casper raised his gaze and stared at Voldemort having entered, and the feeling of admiration and fascination blossomed up within him. He grinned happily. The memory faded out here, and Casper started to come to himself, his body fighting whatever was interfering with his mind. He started gasping for air as if he couldn’t breathe properly. His eyes flew up wide and he was panicking.

Thomas quickly released the spells he had put upon Casper, pulling himself away from the boy’s memories. Not only because what he had seen was horrifying, but also because when Casper would fight back, the situation might become entirely turned around. And Thomas didn’t want Casper in his mind. His mind was more or less the only place he was safe. Not even at home he felt at ease, with his mother. His mother was basically not really normal, or so he often described it himself. She had slept with an amount of men even Thomas couldn’t remember. And not only that, but she knew about what and who he was – she was a half-blood witch herself – but didn’t bother with his studies. His own mother hated him to the core, and he didn’t want Casper to know about it. He looked at Casper’s arm, the place where the Dark Mark was tattooed upon the young boy’s skin. He caressed it gently with the tip of his thumb, wondering what had driven Casper to have given in to such fate, such destiny. “Casper?” he eventually asked, wondering if the other had truly waken up, calmed down even. He placed his arms behind him, pulling him up so he’d sit straight. He took off the upper clothing of the other Slytherin entirely, giving a glance at the marks on his back. He knew of spells that would be able to heal such wound, but they’d take more than days to perform, and weren’t the easiest. Thomas had made it his hobby to learn as much spells as possible, just like Saiph (whom actually did that in order to keep up with Thomas). “I’ll bring you back to the Slytherin dorm”, Thomas promised Casper as he put his clothes back on. “But you’ll have to tell me exactly what is going on”, he added, his eyes narrowed to two thin stripes. He had become more pale too. Things were becoming more and more complicated nowadays, and he didn’t know if he was able to handle it much longer. Maybe he’d give in too, despite his clear opinion and visions, the things he believed in were all fading to darkness. Slowly, but certainly, everything changed to his advantage.

Lyall hadn't found either Thomas nor Casper, but she'd found Madam Hooch, and had subquently asked her if she could try out for the Quidditch team. The Broom Mistress had agreed and told her that she'd mention it to the captain, even if it was a bit late in the season. The little girl had no issue with this and skipped down the hall to her house. She was going to be late if she didn't hurry, but didn't feel for class. Lyall had to go to evening classes due to having being a Reverse Wizard, meaning her magic was raw and weak through a wand, and controlled and powerful through her hands and movements. This caused a ruckus in class and she'd needed to take extra lessons to keep up with everyone else. It annoyed her, but it needed to be done so she didn't fail. Her parents had to have these classes too but only in the last year when more advanced spells were taught. She was quick with her bag and ran past everyone else in the common room including the older Slytherin girls. They were all mumbling about something that'd happened only a few minutes ago by the Forbidden forest. Lyall didn't understand much of it and ran to her class, smiling at the other students who were there. They were all there for different reasons, only Lyall had Reverse Wizardry though, the others were either unlucky in health, a bit slow or had their wand snapped and needed to learn how to use another one or do simple spells with their hands, something which they found difficult. There was even a Squib there, seeing she was taking in by the teacher after her parents disowned her, he was trying to see if he could call forth the magic deep in her genes. So far he was unsuccessful. 'You are just on time, Lyall. Sit, sit.' Their teacher said. He was a small, man with a massive beard, a very kind and generous man who understood that some people just found magic difficult to use. 'Today my dear students we'll be working on the Forbidden Spells, not learning how to use them, just their function and if possible a counter for them. Open your books on page ninety tree!' He sounded cheerful, so Lyall did what she was told and began to read little by little. A spell caught her off guard however as she read the world softly, 'Sectumsempra...' Suddenly a voice crackled around the corners of the school and all the students turned their head around as Professor McGonagall's voice boomed into their ears, 'All students are to return to their dorms. All prefects are to count and make sure no one below year four are missing and then meet the teachers in the Great Hall. All students from the Extra classes are to meet in the Great Hall. Please do this quickly, and tidily. I do not want to hear a single student outside of their common room. Thank you.' Everyone in the class room began to mumble and Lyall felt her face go pale as a sudden fear arose over her. She'd heard similar words before when visiting Hogwarts with her Guardian. Someone had attacked a student.

“Hmmmn.” Casper replied, his eyes not figuring out which of Thomas’s faces they were supposed to focus on. He had barely noticed that his shirt had gotten removed and put back on. His subconscious knew however what had happened and the wage thought that Thomas had seen the scars made a small frown crawl over Casper’s nose. He had stopped wiggling and seemed rather calm, yet he was still disorientated, weak and looked as if he could pass out again any second. “Thank you. Thomas.” His vision seemed to return to normal, and his skin had started getting some color back. “You have to promise. Promise not to tell. Anyone. No matter what.” Casper’s unsteady hand reached for his wand. The other hand pulled out something from beneath his shirt, and with his wand he uncloaked a medallion hanging in a chain around his neck, that he had concealed using an invisibility charm. “This. Is what’s making me. Making me sick.” He explained, and turned the medallion in his hand. “I can’t take it off. It’s hexed. By my dear mother.” He let go of the medallion and glanced up at Thomas and smiled faintly. “I’m not entirely sure how it works. But it seems that whenever she’s being cruel towards someone, I feel good. I feel so good, as if I’m enjoying it. The more time in between her being cruel, the worse I feel. She’s staying low. They’re plotting.” He stopped the explanation there. “There is a counter-spell for the hexing. Been trying to find it all summer. We have this book but the page is torn out.” He laughed, but it sounded empty. “Will you take me ba-” He started when the message about returning to the dorms echoed throughout the classroom. “Guess you will, eh?” He grinned half-heartedly before having to support himself against Thomas. The sickness seemed to come in waves.

Thomas lifted Casper in his arms again, frowning at hearing the sound of someone having attacked a student. He knew it wasn’t Casper this time, because he had been with him all the time. Saiph? No, Saiph had a big mouth, but wasn’t bad at heart, just like Thomas himself. Lyall? She hadn’t got bad intentions either, though her spells might’ve gone out of control. But killing another student? Unless she had summoned another giant firebird, but then people would’ve noticed. He figured they would probably do a wand-check, in order to see which wand had used which spell the last time. He’d ask Lyall if she knew anything, even remotely, about it, and eventually to check her wand himself. You never knew. He had covered for Thomas already, so why not for Lyall too. He brought Casper all the way back to the Slytherin dorm and laid him down on the bed. “I’ll look at it for you”, he promised Casper, referring to the spell. He then turned away from Casper, in order to go check up on what happened with Snape. Teachers loved him because of his punctuality, skill and leadership. Thomas knew what to do in a panic-situation. He went to aid them the best he could, not only because it mattered to him what happened to the school, but also because he wanted to figure out what happened.

There was this wide, no, this huge feeling of dread overcoming the usually timid girl. Lyall wasn't just keeping her eyes on the ground, she was downright hiding from everyone. The teachers had all the extra lesson children grouped together, either sorted by age or level of danger, because Lyall was standing by herself. The Prefects stared down at them all, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors paying particular attention to the more shifty children from Slytherin. The Slytherin and Hufflepuff prefects were heavily protesting the lineup saying that it was barbaric, frightening and single the Extra Lesson children out more than necessary. Professor McGonagall silenced everyone and Lyall looked up at her as she put her hands together softly. 'Students, there appears to be an attacker in this school, who has used a spell... a very ferocious spell, on some of your fellow students. We have collected you here because it is known that only you, or someone of your caliber is capable of performing this spell, no matter how behind you are everyone else in your year... Please take out your wands.' Everyone dug out their wands, be they snapped, short, long thin or none existent. The squib was excused. Lyall held out her own wand, now very confused as she tried to think of what might've happened. She thought back to when she flew after Thomas and Casper left, only to realize there was a large blank space where a memory was supposed to be. Lyall frowned deeply, and looked at the floor in an attempt to enhance her failed memory. 'Miss du Toit! I hope I am not boring you!' Professor McGonagall tapped her head with her wand and the little girl jumped, 'N-no professor!' she chimed, giving her a small smile. The Transfiguration teacher smiled back and tapped the little girls wand lightly, 'Prior Incantato.' she said sternly, holding an expression as if she'd swallowed a lemon. Nothing happened, and the teacher tried again, 'Prior Incantato!' she screeched. Nothing. The other students began to snigger and she turned to them with a brutal stare. 'Miss du Toit, am I to understand you have no yet used your wand, why are you in the Extra Lessons?' Lyall looked at the floor and took a deep breath. 'I have used my wand but the magic didn't work, I think... I'm in the Extra Lessons for... well... Re-reverse Wizardry.' She stared at the floor as her faced burned. Reverse Wizardry was the main cause for all the teasing she got, this would only make it worse she was sure.

Before letting Thomas storm down the stairs to take control of the situation, Casper grabbed a hold on his shirt, just long enough for the other to turn and look at him. “I appreciate it. What you did for me today. Although I’m far easier to be around than you, not many would’ve done it. Thank you.” Casper then shooed Thomas out with his hand before letting his head drop onto the pillow, closing his eyes. “Don’t let Lyall get herself into more trouble. I’ve a feeling I’ll be sleeping for more than a day.” He grinned before yawning. He closed his eyes but opened them again rather quickly, as he realized he had forgotten to cloak the medallion back into being invisible. He stared over at his wand but couldn’t bother getting back up. He clenched his fingers around the medallion and did the charm, rolling the medallion around in his hand, as if he was tucking it into a veil of transparency. “Goodnight Casper. Sweet dreams.” He then whispered to himself, smiling slightly as he closed his eyes and drifted off.

Thomas came running down the hall. The watchdog of the teachers, some dared calling him – but those were not part of Slytherin. Not much behind him, Saiph dribbled down the stairs. He seemed utterly confused, and him siding with Thomas was odd enough for the rest of the houses, but a situation like this one called for it. Snape pulled Thomas aside and told in a whispering voice what had happened. Snape was aware Thomas knew of the spell, as Snape himself had taught Thomas. Thomas looked frowning at Saiph, whose eyes narrowed slightly. He understood. The two of them both went to interrogate their own house, in a rather subtle way if possible. Thomas went to see Lyall, asking her: “You don’t know if anything, anything at all happened, do you?” He made a helpless gesture. “A Gryffindor girl got… torn apart. Near the Forbidden Forest, where you were flying. Have perhaps seen anything? Even if it’s just-” He didn’t finish his sentence, knowing Lyall would speak the truth to him. If she couldn’t trust him, she probably could trust no one.

Lyall was surprised by Thomas' question, her eyes following Saiph before they returned to the older Slytherin. 'I...' It would look bad if she told him that she couldn't remember, least she thought, or a voice in her head said it would look bad. 'I well... when you ‘n Thomas left, I went flying again.' She took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes before looking down, 'I flew around the ground and I think I saw a Gryffindor flying around too...' She peered at Saiph than at the ground once more. There was a clear picture inside her head of this happening, so she believed it, even if she knew it'd never happened. 'I, I think it might've been an older student, because well... uhm.' Lyall stopped and grabbed Thomas pulling him down to her level, 'I'm scared, Please don't make me say anything...' She was scared for one reason, her mind, her memories of what had happened not even an hour ago where gone, blank, and if there was nothing there anymore. The child shivered and wrapped her coat around herself tightly, 'I'm not sure what's going on...' she whispered hoarsely.

Felix was at the shop, organizing the wands as his grandfather had asked, when a messenger owl came into the shop, gliding onto the front desk. He was quietly consumed into his own little world filled with unheard of spells trinkets and much other magical items alphabetizing and sorting the wands by hand. With a sudden screech from the owl as his grandfather took the message off its leg and a short shout from his grandfather shouting “Felix!?!” Felix Replied with ”Coming Grandfather”, as he walked out of the back room to the front desk seeing his grandfather message in hand. “For you”, his grandfather quietly said as he handed the message to him, seeing “Ministries of Magic”. He grabbed his hat and started calmly walking out the front door, reading it as he set the hat on his head. The letter informing him that he has been requested to oversee the current situation at Hogwarts. He did not even notice his grandfather shouting at him about the unfinished job he was doing. He stepped out the door, murmuring to himself as he headed towards a hidden port key, secretly used by Ministries. He then turned a few corners and sat down on a wooden chair. Within a split second, he was launched into the air and landing in the Hogwarts court yard, the chair braking on impact. He stood up and dusted himself off, fixing his hat and drawing attention by those near. He didn’t pay them attention and dabbled to himself as he went off to see Albus Dumbledore. Arriving at his office, he gave a knock upon the door, then letting himself knowing someone was expected. It has been quite a long time since he has been in this office, not a second sooner Albus Dumbledore's voice arose from the quite calm room welcoming him. Felix got up and turned to Dumbledore, the look on his face slightly flawed for a second, not expecting Felix. At least he knew Felix was stationed at Azkaban Prison, and with little time wasted they started conversing about the issue at hand. Dumbledore filled Felix in on all details and showed concern. Felix then suggested him to meet the students. Dumbledore nodded and spoke with him, as he lead Felix to the students, walking into the room just as Professor McGonagall stopped speaking. She saw the two walk in, heading towards her, meeting them half way the three of them conversed quietly, heads drawn to them and specifically Felix, who was now standing at the front of the class. Professor McGonagall would call for their attention with a short cough from her throat. “Attention Students, this is Felix Ollivander from the Ministries of Magic. He is here to examine the Extra's class and to assess the current situation.” Felix would nod toward the group of kids. “Okay, as you already, know I am Felix Ollivander and am from The Ministries of Magic. You may call me as you wish, either Mr. Ollivander or Felix. Now that you know my name you must be wondering: do I need to know yours? No I do not, I can name each one of you by face and wand.” Adjusting his hat slightly as he spoke, peering over the younger ones in front of him, he examined each one briefly, then turning to Dumbledore as he spoke. “As of tonight, there will be an eight O’clock curfew. Anyone caught outside their dorms after, will be questioned, brought to detention, possibly expelled.”

Casper’s eyes flew up. He felt great, really great, and it was only after a couple seconds he understood why. The medallion. He heard voices from the dorm, and decided he’d go check up on it. This time however, he took the time to make sure he looked his usual self; clothes sitting perfectly and his hair laying against his mesmerizing face in a way that made his silver eyes pop further. Without making a sound, he slid down the stairs and lured himself in between a couple of the other students, leaning nonchalant against the nearest wall. His eyes scanned the area, and as he did he gave several people a good nod. His eyes finally settled onto Thomas and he couldn’t help but tilt his head and smile. “Always in charge, eh Thomas?” He thought before letting his eyes wander on. He exchanged a rather smug grin with Draco, whom was busy telling those who bothered listening several possible ways the Gryffindor’s could’ve plotted the attack. Casper unintentionally rolled his eyes, and again it hit him how incredibly good he felt all of a sudden. The thought of his mother quickly turned his expression empty, and he got that look upon his face telling everyone around he wasn’t paying attention one bit.

As Casper would look outside, he could see a white haired Gryffindor that wasn’t with the rest of his house. He looked an awful lot like Saiph, but his hair was shorter and his skin less grey. He suspiciously looked over his shoulder, then started running, first slowly, but more quickly by the second, to suddenly shift into a big, grey wolf – grey, and not white like Saiph. It was Lesath, Saiph’s younger brother by two years. For some reason, he wanted to skip the wand-checking. The grey wolf disappeared into the forest. Not much later, another wolf, this time a white one, followed. He looked over his shoulder regularly, checking if he wasn’t followed. He too, crossed the borders of the Forbidden Forest. They were clearly up to something, and it was too obvious they didn’t want anyone else to know about it. Suddenly, Thomas appeared behind Casper. “What’re you looking at?” he asked, a curious tone peeking through his voice. He had left Lyall after she had reacted oddly to his question. He didn’t want to pressure her, but definitely would talk about it later on. Something awfully strange was going on, and Thomas didn’t really like it.

Lyall had run up to her room the minute Casper and Thomas had both been distracted. Her Metamorphmagus had started bothering her again as a pair of ears had curled themselves out of her hair. Lyall had no control over when it happened, it even went as far as to turn her into a completely different size; which worried her and some of her teachers since sometimes it'd happen right in the middle of class. Right now however, Lyall was turning into a shrinking semi-cat. She crawled into her bed and hid under the quilt, her eyes beginning to water as she slowly became more feline. In the end she'd gained a tail, whiskers, tail and even fur in some places. Hearing her dormmates come in Lyall remained silent. She knew that didn't like her, but what she heard made her furious. 'I can't believe that little brat Lyall managed to bring the ministry here! Now I can't do any of my spells anymore without getting into trouble with Daddy!' A scuffling sound was heard and shoes were thrown to the side, 'I know! It's so annoying. Everyone knows it was her yet they don't do anything because she's a du Toit. I hate rich families!' Lyall wanted to scratch the girl, but in stead thought a long string of insults and curses. 'In truth Lyall's family wasn't very rich, it was just a lot of people living in a very large mansion by the border of Scotland and by a lot she meant about eight branches of her family, meaning the Myrells, the Mortimers, the Taytors, the Aderills, the Caratis, the Gyrins, the Xesiri and the Loyals. Most of the family had been at Hogwarts, in fact there were only sixteen du Toit children currently at the school. Another four would join in Lyall's fifth year. The Loyal branch had been the head family for almost a hundred years prior to Mortimer taking over. This was decided in a competition within the family held once every ten years. It was a well built, well organised rule that the first born of every Branch was to fight in this competition, no matter the age. Death was the only way to win. When Mortimer took over they changed the Death rule because of the high number of child deaths they had. Lyall was to fight in it by the summer however, and she was afraid. Because of all this thinking she lost track of what was said by the rest of the girls until one flung the quilt over and smiled at the tiny version of kitten Lyall. She was too big for her clothes and the girls smiled cruel. 'Oh look! A tiny Lyall! Let’s lock her outside in the grounds, maybe that'll teach the brat a lesson!...' Lyall felt her skin crawl as the girl picked her up and the others opened a window that was level with the ground. Lyall struggled violently to no avail as they threw her into the cold, and now wet ground wrapped up in Lyall’s bedding and a shirt that belonged to a Gryffindor. As the window closed Lyall morphed back into her usual self, naked with only a shirt to cover herself with. The young girl shivered and glared daggers at the window that was too small for her to go through. The girls waved coldly at her and walked away, crawling into their beds. Lyall grabbed the shirt and pulled it over her head, marching across the grounds. In the distance, she saw a shape moving between the trees of the forest. This wasn't one of Lyall's best moments as she stood in the cold, the wet, naked besides from a shirt and ran after the shapes.

“Saiph is up to something. He’s with someone. Someone like him.” Casper said calmly, as if the Gryffindor being up to something wasn’t to any surprise for him. He then threw a glance at Thomas, grinning. It was too obvious Casper hadn’t any plans on letting the Gryffindor get away with doing something he wasn’t supposed to. “You coming or what?” He mouthed at Thomas as he gracefully made his way out, no-one seeming to notice him passing at all. With that charming smile of his, he convinced the prefect by the portrait that he was going for the bathrooms to check if they were missing anyone. After a quick headcount the prefect nodded, and Casper shook his head at the fortunate of someone from the House not being present. When he got outside, he quickly hexed his shoes to be able to move soundlessly and quickly, before cloaking himself invisible. Almost any other student would’ve used their broom, if they had one that was, but not Casper. He preferred having his feet planted onto the ground, or a tree. He ran over at the forbidden forest and waited there a while, wondering if Thomas would tag along or not. His eyes were gleaming with a childish joy. Being invisible hunting Gryffindor’s wasn’t a first for him. Hunting Saiph was however, and he knew simple spells wouldn’t be enough to keep Saiph from showing up in time for classes the day after.

She was already cold on her feet when she entered the forest but the rapid changing of her hair color and face made it slightly easier to ignore it. The main reason she was changing her features was because she didn't want to be called a thief. There wasn't much of a change, except that her hair was shorter, a darker brown and her skin had gained some freckles. She didn't have too much of a baby face and she tweaked her nose some. Her eyes however were unchangeable, she just hoped they wouldn't recognize them. Stepping through the twigs, she hissed a bit as she miss-stepped and fell into the muddy ground. This probably saved her as she peered from under the tree trunk at the two wolf like creatures that stood just a few meters from her. What they were doing she wasn't sure but her heart skipped a beat as she watched their movements. The small child rose onto her bare feet again and stood next to the tree with wide, curious eyes. She shifted and sat on the tree trunk, pushing the large sweater under her so that she didn't sit on the cold tree with her bare backside. Being a metamorphagus meant that she could change any aspect of her body into whatever she wanted, although having full control over changing her own facial features, she'd sometimes gain animal features too. Like fur on her face or whiskers. Sometimes she even got the teeth or the voice. Right now she was comfortable however. The point of this curiosity was the fact that Lyall wanted to become an Animagus, not that it meant anything special to her, she just wanted to know that she could do it, and thus, the two wolves that stood in front of her held her fascination without an issue.

The two wolves circled around each other for a short time, lowly growling at each other. Saiph was the bigger one of them two. He sat down on his ass after a while and looked with his big, purple eyes at his brother, the smaller wolf. Lesath sniffed in the air. He didn’t like the scent that was hanging around. Something, or rather someone had been following them. He growled, lowering his head and sneaking towards the place the scent came from. Saiph smelled it too, but he didn’t take action. He just sat quietly in his place. His head followed his brother. He wrapped his tail neatly around his body, covering up his paws. Just the way he was sitting showed pride. No fear, no loyalty but no distrust either. He looked Lyall’s way, his purple eyes looking kind for a change. Lesath, however, was getting closer by the second. He was sneaking around, to surprise Lyall from behind. He wondered why they had been followed by such a small, pathetic Slytherin girl. When he got close enough, he growled a little louder, to get the attention of the girl, showing her she hadn’t been left unnoticed, and was closed in by two matured wolves that seemed ready to attack her any moment. Saiph too now, stood up and walked towards Lyall. His steps barely made sound, his tail was lowered to the ground, as was his head. His purple eyes didn’t let go of Lyall.

Thomas frowned. “You’re awkwardly obsessed with him,” he said, but nonetheless he obediently followed Casper. He ran through the halls, not caring whether or not he was invisible. Nobody would try stopping him either way, just because he was such a perfect student. The wind tugged his hair as he ran after Casper. He stopped only when he had reached Casper. “If he’s in the Forbidden Forest, shouldn’t we rather leave him alone?” It wasn’t like Thomas to be reluctant from breaking rules, rather on the contrary. He was behaving odd when it came to Saiph lately. Thomas glanced through the threes. “Not only that,” he noticed, gesturing at the sky. “It’ll be dark soon, so there’s no use in chasing him.” He looked at Casper, nearly asking him to return to the Slytherin room with just the look he was giving Casper. Nearly begging, even, more than just asking. “Let’s go back,” Thomas pressured.

“Since when were you scared of facing Saiph?” Casper asked bluntly. “I’m going. You can chicken back to the dorms if you want to.” With that, Casper’s invisible self started moving into the forest rather soundlessly. If one looked closely, one would see him move as branches seemed to be bent away by a non-existent wind. Now and then small sticks broke under his weight, but other than that there was no trace of him. The smell of him would still linger in the air, and any creature with senses stronger than a human would easily pick it up. When he finally spotted the two wolves, he realized he wasn’t far from the tree-cottage he used to camp in now and then. He turned and found the way to the ladder and climbed up onto one of the bridges leading to his cottage where he had a rather good view of the two wolves. He then saw the girl in the much too large Gryffindor shirt and raised a brow. “The hell?” He thought and leaned forwards so that he stood on all four on the plank-bridge with nets at each side. He still couldn’t see properly, and leaned more of his weight forward. His one hand slipped on the greenery and through the net, causing him to land onto the planks with his chest. “Oufh” He uttered before holding his breath and laying completely still, an automatic reaction he had developed through years of hiding from his family members.

Lyall heard everything, but she wasn't sure what was going on, putting her feet against the wood she leant against the tree and held onto it slightly as her eyes went across the wolves that were within her view. Normally she'd be terrified, but at the moment she was basking in the wonder of watching them roaming so naturally. She slithered down again and smiled at the wolf that'd slipped behind her. It wasn't her usual nervous smile, it was more of a happy, curious and warm smile you'd see on the older girls. The pre-teen slipped a giggle out and jumped off the trunk, trudging over to the grey wolf with her hand out as the look of wonder grew. Reaching out to stroke it, one word slipped past her pale lips, 'Beautiful...' she whispered. In the back of her head, something was telling her to panic, to run, to scream to use magic, fly anything, but the child ignored it and blew some hair out of her face not realizing that that one blow changed her appearance back to her own, so that it was obvious it was Lyall Mortimer du Toit in the Gryffindor shirt and not another student. She didn't realize as she magical feeling she picked up from the wolf hit her senses.

Lesath bit Lyall’s hand, having smelled she was a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor. He despised the scent of the dungeons as much as he despised the Slytherin themselves. He cared little for being called beautiful, as it was more a woman’s compliment to him. Saiph, however, growled at his brother as he bit her. Lesath obediently backed off. Saiph turned around and walked deeper into the forest, followed closely by his younger brother. Lesath looked over his furry shoulder and growled hatefully at Lyall, giving her a warning not to follow them.

Thomas rolled his eyes. “I’m not scared of Saiph”, he said. It was entirely true. He still continued to follow Casper. “It’s just that we’re not supposed to be here either, so if you want to turn him for having broken the rules, you’ll have to explain what we were doing here too.” He grabbed Casper’s arm and pulled him a little bit back as he noticed the wolves and Lyall. “What in bloody fuck’s godly fuckery name is she doing out here?” He seemed sincerely concerned about her.

“Wherever trouble is, Lyall is.” Casper grinned and uncloaked himself. “Good point. About turning Saiph in. They’re still up to something though. Lyall will be our excuse for being here. She’s a missing student.” He got back down onto the ground and shot a glance at Lyall before glancing the way the wolves had gone as if he considered whether to take care of Lyall or to follow them. “What are you doing here Lyall? You’re supposed to be at the dorms.” He stared in between the trees, almost tripping on the place. “Why don’t you stay here while I’m being stupid, ignorant and out of place.” He smirked at Thomas before vanishing in between trees. “I do believe we’re supposed to be back at Hogwarts, Saiph!” He called out into the forest as he changed between a light jog and quick running. “You’re up to something you nasty wolf.”

Lyall didn't notice she'd been bitten until the wolves had left, and then she started to half laugh half cry. It hurt a lot, but she couldn't believe those creatures where people. She sniffed and looked at Thomas and Casper smiling at them both through the pained tears. 'I got thrown out of my dorm by the girls... I'm getting a little sick of them...' she choked as the long maroon sleeve of the Gryffindor shirt brushed against her face. She was really cold she realized as she staggered towards Thomas, looking up at him in an extremely pathetic manner, with wet hair, muddy feet and legs, a bleeding knee and a lightly bruised and slightly bleeding hand from a sharp cut given to her from one of the wolves' teeth. 'I was just going to stay around the castle... Bu-'she stopped and cough lightly wiping her nose and eyes against as she continued, '-but I saw the wolves, and they were so pretty... I had to see where they were going. I'm going to be an animagus see, and those wolves, those... people I had to.' she smiled at him weakly before walking over and hugging the older boy's waist, tightly snuggling into him as she let out another choked question, 'Wh-why don-doesn't anyone like... like Slytherin?' she whispered snuggling into the warmer, older male student.

Thomas slid out of the embrace of the little girl, a worried expression on his face. “Lyall, go back to the castle, and don’t tell a word about what’s going on here.” Without much more explanation, he rushed after Casper, having pulled his wand out of his pocket. Meanwhile Casper had probably already caught up with the wolves, whom weren’t in a rush. They smelled his scent and stopped, however, turning around to see what was following them now. Both changed back to their human forms. “What do you want?” Saiph asked. At that moment, Thomas arrived there too, having ran as fast as he could. His legs were longer than Casper’s, and his condition better muggle-trained. “Casper,” he breathed, tired from the sprint he had performed. He tightly grabbed his upper-arm. “We’re going back to the castle,” he said, his eyes fiercely fixed onto Casper. He avoided eye-contact with Saiph or Lesath. “Stop chasing them.”

“It’s ok to be afraid, Thomas. You’re the big bad Slytherin.” He turned to Saiph, completely and utterly ignoring the tone in Thomas voice. “What do I want? I want to know what you’re doing out here, skipping wand-checks. Answer the question, truthfully, and I will head back and pretend it never happened.” Casper lied, but it wasn’t very obvious. Like whenever he walked around the halls of Hogwarts, everything he said did or looked said friendly, and hadn’t it been for the Slytherin uniform, his white hair telling he was related to the Malfoys’ and the intelligent silvery eyes; one could easily mistake him for a Hufflepuff. “Is that your brother?” He then nodded at Lesath. “Cute one.” He remarked before turning his attention back at Saiph. He felt powerful, as if the medallion was glowing with strength and he was absorbing it. He let his hands slip into his pockets, and his left hand curled around his wand. His thoughts flicked a moment to what he’d done during the holidays. He caught himself missing it.

Lyall as always ignored what the older boys said and followed them both. She wasn't trying to disobey them, it was just she didn't want to leave them alone, or be alone. Casing after the two boys she was right behind them after a few minutes of running, arriving just in time to see the two wolves transform. She stopped there, panting, with a few extra scratches on her face, watching the boys talking. Her hand had stopped bleeding due to the cold air and she smiled looking at the people. She recognized one of them and she stepped out from behind a tree and ran up to Thomas and Casper, looking at the one who Casper had identified as Saiph's brother. Lyall admitted that he was cute. She grabbed Casper's hand and looked at him and Thomas softly. If it wasn't already known, Lyall could've been mistaken for another house as she looked so unlike a Slytherin at the time, 'Can I stay in your dorms? The girls in mine won't leave me alone...' She was still panting, but her breath was less shallowing and she took a deep breath, stepping between the boys with a light smile, 'Please.. calm, calm down?' she breathed trying to stifle a yawn. Her fingers sparked slightly and Lyall looked at her hand, a small confused feeling going through her warmly before she stepped over to Saiph and reached out with the hand Lesath had bitten, 'I'm sorry about my friends, it's just someone attacked some Gryffindors and... nobody is happy.' she tried. Briefly a memory flickered across her brain and she saw herself looking down at the Gryffindors from a broom.

Thomas stepped in between Casper and Lyall and Lesath and Saiph. He had his wand in his hand, ready to take any action needed. “Casper,” he said, his tone more serious now. Threatening, almost. “Back off.” There the threat was. Saiph was standing calmly behind Thomas, still looking at Casper. “We’re wolves at heart,” he said to Casper. “Whether you believe it or not, we weren’t here to do anyone harm of any kind. And our wands have already been controlled.” Saiph didn’t seem in the least threatened by Casper, apparently not so surprised Thomas was trying to stop Casper. He walked closer to Thomas and took his wand out of his pocket too, siding with his rival. “Casper, I’m warning you”, Thomas hissed in a low tone. “Take Lyall and go back to the Slytherin dorms.” A strange furious glance laid in his eyes, a glance Casper would recognize, but not because he had seen it before in Thomas’ eyes. There was someone else with those same, threatening and dangerous eyes. “One step further,” Thomas growled “And I’ll kill you.” So far their precious friendship. Thomas apparently wanted to protect those Gryffindors far more than to keep his friendship with Casper, perhaps because he knew what Casper was craving for, knew what he was capable of doing. He had seen him kill before, and he knew he would do it again.

Casper raised a brow as Thomas stepped in between all of them and told him to back off. Hadn’t it been for the fact Thomas was siding with two Gryffindors over him, Casper would’ve done so. Instead he glanced down on his boots, grinning, as if he found the entire situation funny. When he glanced back up however, the friendly face had been replaced with one very similar to the one usually found upon Draco Malfoy’s face while he criticized muggles. “Wolves. At heart. How poetic. Gryffindors. Brave. Skilled. Impulsive… Weak? I think that’s it. Perhaps you should’ve been placed there instead, Thomas.” He mocked Thomas, his expression turning grim as Thomas kept warning him off. He didn’t like being told what to do. By weak Casper didn’t mean physically, or strength in magic, and he was rather sure Thomas knew that. Casper was about to continue mocking Thomas when the real threat interrupted his thoughts; ”And I’ll kill you.” Casper flinched briefly, and he had to fight the urge to throw a punch at Thomas. He tilted his head, and his own eyes soon matched Thomas’ in intensity. Incredibly swiftly, Casper pointed his wand at Thomas, staring at him with the same cold and cynical silvery eyes that had been the last thing someone had ever seen. Casper then caught a glimpse of Lyall at the corner of his eyes, and he let his wand slowly sink back at his side before turning on his heel and grabbing a firm hold of Lyall’s sweater. “Come.” He snarled at her while dragging her along back towards the school.

Lyall started to become distressed at the situation, and the minute Casper tried to drag her away she pulled herself free by biting the older boy's arm hard enough to break the skin and almost the muscle as she tore away from him and ran towards the Gryffindors, magic sparking violently from her hands. Briefly they ignited and she pushed at Lesath roughly with an angry look in her eyes. 'I will not allow you to hurt each other!' She called out, the magic continuing to spark as she quickly tried to think of a spell to use. She had no idea what to say but the magic had its own life and slowly became a mix between red and green. This was messy, but Lyall wasn't afraid right now, she was angry, angry at the Slytherin boys, the Gryffindors. She looked at Saiph and bowed softly, acknowledging his superior wand casting ability. 'Please don't hurt my friends, Saiph, I just want to take them back, I'm very... very sorry that they have angered you, please,' she went quiet as she lifted her head and stared at Lesath. 'You are cute.' She stated, flatly, like he was just to shut up and accept.

Saiph didn’t seem angry at all. He was slightly surprised by the excessive reaction of the little girl. “You pushed my brother,” he simply stated “While he was the only one that hadn’t done anything.” He glanced at Thomas, who let out a short sigh as he lowered his wand. Thomas shortly nodded at Saiph, who turned back at Lyall. “I wouldn’t hurt Thomas either.” He threw a short glance at Casper, a daring, tempting spark lit his eyes. “For we are lovers.” Saiph put his wand back. Thomas glanced at Casper. Of course, this explained a lot, instead of a Slytherin taking it up for a Gryffindor, it now was a couple standing up for each other. Thomas looked distracted for a split second and then turned back at Casper. “I don’t think your lord would be pleased if you kill his son.” He made a gesture at the two Gryffindors, that obediently followed him as he started going back at the castle. Casper probably understood what Thomas meant, and saw in Saiph’s eyes he knew, too. Lesath, however, just blankly stared at him, not showing whether or not he actually was aware of what was going on. He didn’t even seem to care to be pushed.

Casper automatically whacked the back of Lyall’s head after she bit him, perhaps a bit harder than he had intended. “Shouldn’t have done that Lyall.” He thought, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Casper didn’t turn however, and was about to continue the opposite direction of the three of them when Saiph’s words fully sunk in. “Funny.” Casper said certainly as he turned, half grinning. He then realized Saiph was speaking the truth. “That’s…” He didn’t even know which of the thousand words for disgusting he was going to insert, and so he remained silent. His expression turned grim, and right before the sly smirk crept across his face there was sadness in his eyes. “That simplifies things. I hope you’re miserable together.” He then started walking away, not for the school this time but further into the forest. “As for the killing, I never meant for it to be either of you.” He let the words hang as he moved away from them, and first when he was sure he was out of reach, he let the façade drop, leaving his face with the mixed expressions of confusion, anger and sadness.

Lyall's eyes teared up as Casper hit her and she rubbed the sore spot forcing the tears back again. The magic has dispelled and she looked at Lesath with a hopeless expression, 'I'm sorry I pushed you, Master Black.' Although technically a Lady herself, Lyall felt below the Black brother simply due to the situation and the difference in magic capability. She walked over to Thomas with her head hanging low and took his hand, mumbling a soft apology. She felt ashamed that her magic hadn't helped anyone and even more ashamed that she was unable to help her friends. In the soaked, huge shirt, her small frame was visible to those with a good eye and so were her forming curves. Lyall noticed this and crossed her arms across her chest and looked at the floor mumbling another apology to the three remaining boys. 'I'll... I'll go to the dorms again, if they let me in.' came another whisper as the little girl began to stumble through the woods and back to the door again. The silence made her shiver and she felt the hot tears go down her face as she realizes Casper had hit her. Coiling her arms around herself, she kept trudging through the forest with her head still dipping with each step she took.

Thomas leant towards Saiph, and softly asked him: “Can you and your brother take her to the Slytherin dorms? Just to the door is fine.” Saiph looked a little worried, but then nodded and gestured at his brother. Lesath immediately followed him. They indeed brought Lyall back to the Slytherin house, without speaking a word. When they arrived at the portrait, Lesath turned around and left. But Saiph patted Lyall’s arm, asking: “You know you’re not supposed to tell anyone, right?” Without waiting for an answer, he leant in towards her and whispered in her ear: “You know I can be mean when you do things I don’t like.” It was a threat, but didn’t sound like one. Then he playfully licked her cheek and followed his brother. Thomas meanwhile followed Casper deeper down the woods. “Casper,” he screamed, desperate to find his friend. He didn’t know if he should’ve told Casper about him and Saiph before. But it was too late for that now. Now he had to catch up with the other and bring him back to the dorm safely.

Casper heard Thomas call after him and sped up. He had no intentions of sleeping at the dorms, and was headed for his secret hideout among the trees. He reached a path he knew, and changed direction, the song reminding him of the way playing in his head. As soon as he had found the first ladder he climbed it with swift, trained movements and pulled it up after him. He then sat still, listening. He was in need of sorting out his thoughts. Closing his eyes, he continued listening intently, but after a while he realized that if Thomas were to pass the tree with the platform well hidden atop and that there were missing a ladder, that he’d easily figure out he’d gone up. Carefully, he leaned over the edge, and slowly fired the ladder back down before once again taking cover. He found it too risky to cross the bridge at this point; the swaying would give him away, even if it made no sound. Once again he closed his eyes, and replayed the happenings of the day. He twitched remembering hitting Lyall. He regretted that, even though she had bit him. What bothered him the most however, were the thought of Saiph and Thomas, and it annoyed him. “Why the hell should I care about that bloody traitor?” He thought half-heartedly, and without thinking he threw his head back in frustration so that it hid one of the planks, leaving a soft thump.

Lyall had acknowledged the threat from the Gryffindor but she'd kept her eyes on the younger brother until they disappeared. Snape came around the corner and his eyes said murder. 'What, are you doing out here, Lady Lyall?' he asked in a sort of huffed tone. Lyall didn't look up until about a minute or so later, in which she had this angry, yet sad look in her eyes. 'I got shoved out the window by my dorm mates who won't stop bullying me! I know you don't have sympathy for the weak, no one in Slytherin does, but you can at least stop them from trying to kill me!' She screamed before mumbling the password and walking into the Slytherin house, earning boos from older students seeing she was still wearing the Gryffindor shirt, in which her response was a shut up or I'll curse your entire existence, causing the room to go very, very quiet. She stalked into the room where the dorm mates began to giggly and point at her. Lyall was angry now and she stormed over and grabbed one of them by the hair pulling her out of the room. She spun around and flung her hand out bellowing Wingardium Leviosa. The rest of the girls flew out the door roughly and hit the wall before Lyall closed the door and locked it. She stared at some wands that lay on the beds and she walked over and broke two of them before flinging herself onto her bed and curling up, biting into the fabric. 'I hate you...' she hissed not thinking of anyone in particular when she said it, but she realized she may be needed to say it soon. With this in mind she went to sleep, the girls in her dorm remaining locked out until sunrise the next day.

Thomas noticed he had lost Casper and cursed in despair. “Casper,” he called out loud once again, pulling his wand and shooting a giant fire dragon into the air, showing his location, but not burning the forest. He cursed in a low voice and continued running. “Casper,” he called again. “Show up! Show up and I’ll join them, I promise!” He fell to his knees, awfully desperate. He had nearly sworn never to join the Death Eaters, despite the many trials of the Dark Lord. Nobody had ever been able to convince him, despite Voldemort’s keen interest in Thomas. He had given this mission to everyone, and it had appeared impossible. But now, now Casper was able to fulfill this precious mission of his Dark Lord. “Casper!” Thomas’ voice sounded in the distance, begging him to show up. “Please, Casper,” his voice was dying out as he spoke his friends’ name one more time. He fell to his knees, his uniform becoming dirty because of the forest ground.

Casper crept together at the sound of Thomas desperate voice; as if he feared the mere sound of it would find him. He had started to feel guilty for letting him wander around alone in the forest, despite his several attempts at convincing himself he was better off without him. It was as if Thomas voice got louder and louder, as if Thomas himself was screaming directly into both his ears, and Casper covered them desperately although the sound was in his mind. “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.” He whispered manically, trying to keep the sound of Thomas’ voice out. “He doesn’t care.” Casper told himself. “Thomas doesn’t…” His eyes flared up and he crawled backwards to the other side of the platform. The dragon of fire was beautiful as it located Thomas and made it harder for Casper not to run to him. He closed his eyes, determined not to give away his position. Just as he was about to relax, satisfied with his decision, the offer Thomas had cried out nearly made him choke on air. Casper knew how much Thomas’ despised the death eaters, and Voldemort’s ideology, and yet he was offering to join them only to make him step out. Had it been anyone else offering that, he wouldn’t have climbed back down the tree, but the death eaters had tried recruiting him for ages. He stopped walking the second he saw Thomas and simply stared at him. Casper let the anger build back up and mask the confusion and insecurity he was feeling. His eyes regained that cold and dangerous stare and he smirked. Then he walked closer, and for once he didn’t bother making sure his steps weren’t audible. He leant against the nearest trunk, saying nothing for a long while. “I showed myself. Will you keep your part?” He asked in a rather cold tone. He waited, and for a brief moment he resembled his mother; “It’s just empty words. Swear to it. Make the unbreakable vow.” Casper regretted it as soon as he’d said the words, but it didn’t show. His expression remained cold, angry.

Thomas frowned. He hadn’t expected Casper to give in so easily. But he would keep himself to his part, indeed. “You know we can’t do it with just the two of us,” he replied. “But otherwise, I would make the vow.” He closed his eyes, knowing he would regret this the rest of his life. He walked towards Casper and wrapped his arms around the other. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding the frail body of the other close to his own. “I made a mistake.” His entire life felt like a mistake. It was in moments like these he was actually feeling that he shouldn’t have ever been born. The only thing he was, was a nuisance to the world. He pressed his nose in Casper’s hair. “I’ll never give you up,” he promised. Casper could feel something odd. A drop of water on his shoulder. And it wasn’t even raining. Thomas’ fingers pierced in Casper’s back. “Don’t ever… do that again,” he muttered softly.

Casper bit his tongue. He had almost suggested harshly that Saiph should be the one to do it. Now he only felt guilty for making Thomas cry. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to think of something clever to say. Something to lighten the mood. Most of all he wished he didn’t know of Saiph. Then Thomas’ words finally sunk in, and Casper flinched. “Give me up!?” He yelled, his voice cracking. Casper pushed Thomas harshly off of him. “You can’t fix me, Thomas. I’m not a broken toy you can glue together. It’s who I am. Who I’m meant to be.” Casper sounded as if he was about to cry; his voice was cracking at several places in the sentence. He was struggling mentally, and it was as if the two sides of him were pulling in two different directions; staying and opening up, or leaving and pushing Thomas away. He stared at Thomas, almost frightened. He had never doubted his decision or goal before, and now he was considering trying to let it go. “I…” he started, nervously changing his stance, shifting his weight from one foot to another. “I never should’ve come down.” He then turned and started walking at the same time, failing to remember he had stood leant up against a tree. He crashed right into it and fell onto his butt on the ground. He buried his face in his shivering hands, nearly gasping for air. He seemed a wreck, and he felt like one.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Thomas said, squatting next to Casper. He wrapped his arm around the boy’s body, under his arms, and pulled him up. “You’re my friend, and nothing will change that,” he said, clearing it up. He lifted Casper in his arms and closed him against his body. Casper could feel the warmth that came from Thomas’ chest. He leant his head on top of Casper’s. “I’ll bring you back to the Slytherin dorm,” Thomas promised. His grip tightened a bit, making sure he wouldn’t drop Casper on his way. It wasn’t the first time he would carry his friend back to the dorm like that. Thomas started walking, making sure he wouldn’t stumble over a branch or anything alike. “I’m glad I met you,” Thomas said, keeping Casper awake by talking to him. When they arrived back at the castle, Casper would see Saiph waiting there for them. Lesath wasn’t there, he probably had gone to the Gryffindor tower already. He could hear Saiph’s voice, asking softly: “Is he alright?” A Gryffindor asking something like that about a Slytherin that had just been threatening him wasn’t quite usual. Thomas nodded quietly. “I’ll talk to you later, Saiph,” he said “You’d better go back to your dorms before someone catches you out here.” The way they were talking to each other was so unlike them, or unlike how they normally acted around each other. Casper had to admit they were good actors on that part. “Casper,” Thomas softly asked when they arrived at the painting that lead to the entrance of their dorms, before whispering the password. He brought him straight up to his bed and carefully laid him down there. “Sleep now.” He softly caressed Casper’s forehead, then took a chair and put it next to Casper’s bed. “I’ll be here,” he promised with a faint smile, holding onto Casper’s hand.

Casper squeezed Thomas hand firmly and yawned, rolling onto his side so he was facing Thomas. His white hair fell over his face and he shook it out of his eyes before opening them and staring at Thomas tiredly. “You should stop treating me like a princess you know.” He yawned, blinking hard to keep his eyes open. “People might get the wrong idea.” He then smirked. “You’ll ruin my reputation.” He followed that up with some half-mumbled words that were impossible to understand, while his eyes slowly closed and he was gone. For once he didn’t start rolling around in his bed, and he seemed to be dreaming peacefully instead of having nightmares.

Lyall was up before anyone else the next day. She'd pulled her hair into two different plats this time, one over her shoulder and one behind. Grabbing her bag, her books and her wand she unlocked the door and trod all over the girls who'd camped outside the door. One screamed as she trod on her hand before disappearing down the stairs and through the portal. A Hufflepuff she'd spoken to a couple of times came out of a potions room and waved at her, and together they walked up to the grand hall. The thing about Lyall was that she never actually ate break, lunch or dinner at the same table. Sometimes she'd sit with Ravenclaw, other times Hufflepuff, and even sometimes she'd sit next to a teacher and eat from their table. It was rare to see her sitting at the Slytherin table or Gryffindor though. Many saw her aw peculiar because of this habit. Today, Lyall sat next to the Hufflepuffs who gave her nervous smiles in return to her bright and warm one. She grabbed the toast, filled her glass with milk and silently went over the notes for class. She would be turning thirteen soon she remembered as an owl dropped a letter onto her head. It was from her parents in Azkaban. Both told her they missed her, they loved her, that they'd received a date to appeal for their freedom... Lyall read that part over and again and a smile perked itself onto her lips briefly, before it vanished at the site of her cousin Lioslaith sitting opposite her. 'Lyall, yer parents. They be gettin released?' she asked in a simple Scottish accent, a nice look in her eyes. 'They have an appeal date... I doubt they'll get released...' she mumbled taking a small bite out of her toast. Lioslaith nodded and peered up and down the room to her fiancée who was walking in. Lioslaith's fiancée was a Hufflepuff who appeared a doormat but was actually very intimidating when someone messed with his "Lio". He sat down next to Lyall's cousin and pecked her lightly on the cheek. He then lent over and ruffled Lyall's hair. 'Morning, Ladies.' he said with a charming expression. Lyall smiled at him lightly and handed him the letter for him to read. Lioslaith read it over his shoulder and they both seemed interested. They were an arranged marriage, a rare idea that their family had had since Lioslaith's fiancée was an orphan and thus had no last name. His guardian had given permission and thus it'd been sealed. Lyall stood up as the hall began to fill, thanked Lioslaith and her fiancée for the company, took her letter and left. Her first class was Transfiguration, one of her least favorite lessons. As she left she thought she spotted Lesath Black with his brother, but was ushered away with her classmates before she had a second chance to see. She got her seat at the front of the classroom, looked at her books and let out a small content sigh.

As Casper would wake up, Thomas was still sitting next to him, looking awfully tired. He noticed Casper woke up and said: “Let’s go, sleepyhead.” He took his bag, which he apparently had already prepared for class, and went downstairs, not waiting for Casper. Casper was old enough to find his way himself, Thomas thought. He petted his hair so it would flatten down a bit. Then he went to the Great Hall for breakfast. He crossed Saiph, who was on his way out, when he entered the Hall. Their eyes locked onto each other for a brief second, and those who would know, would see a small, faint smile, before Saiph yelled: “Hunter! Stop chickening out our duels!” Thomas didn’t reply, but just walked further. “I’d go for a duel if you were actually worth dueling with,” he replied, without even looking back as he aimed for the Slytherin table. He noticed Lyall at a distance and nodded at her as a sign of saying good morning. He sat down, not far away from the one year younger Draco Malfoy. He knew him a little, but found him too sassy to talk to, someone who thought he could do everything. Thomas didn’t like him too well, but then again he didn’t know him too well. All he knew was that his father was a Death Eater. The thought of having to join them, didn’t feel that well to him. He sighed and glanced at the food, not really that hungry. He had saved a seat for Casper, next to him. He rapidly ate, but not too quickly so Casper would still be able to catch up with him. Next class was Defense against the Black Arts, one of his favorites, merely because he was so good at it.

Casper woke up and barely caught sight of Thomas as he flew down the stairs. “I feel the way you look. A total mess.” He thought and let his head fall back onto his pillow. He strongly considered to go back to sleep, but figured that would make it too obvious he hadn’t been in when he should have. He eventually got up, and after fixing up his uniform and hair, he threw cold water in his face and went for the great hall. He caught sight of Saiph as he wandered the halls, and chose to pretend he hadn’t. Entering the great hall he put on his ever-charming grin and positive attitude and sat down next to Thomas, giving him a friendly push. “Morning. You look like a mess. I should fix your hair sometime.” Without waiting for a response, he dug into a piece of bread before giving a friendly nod in nearly everyone’s direction. Everyone seemed to be happy to return the nod, even Draco. “What table is Lyall at?” He asked before giving the great hall a quick scan.

Lyall couldn't concentrate in transfiguration, even though she was trying hard. Looking over the book the words were all meaningless to her and she lent her head against the desk letting out a loud sigh. Some students looked at her as she raised her hand slowly, watching tremble slightly. 'Professor, can I go to Madame Pomfrey? I'm not feeling very well today.' The teacher nodded and Lyall quickly collected her things and left the lesson, her head held high as she spied the corners trying hard not to get spotted by a prefect as she wanted to go the long way to the nurse. She pulled at her wand and smiled a little at the small message written on the side by her parents. She reached the open courtyard and perched herself on a bench, pulling out a book and began to read it, tracing the words with her finger so she didn't miss any. She whistled lightly and let the light wind carry the weak tune to small corners of the buildings. Lyall sat there thinking nice thoughts to herself as she tried to think of an apology to Casper for biting him. She then remembered that he'd hit her and her mind then wondered to what Thomas had said. "It's his fault..." she thought bitterly and snapped the book closed. She put it next to her and sat there quietly, rubbing her cheek lightly. She sat up quickly and walked towards the School infirmary leaving her book behind. There was a note sticking out of the top of it, addressed to both Thomas and Casper. Briefly Lyall kept walking, until she ran back and snatched the book and the note up. Holding it close to her chest she ran to the infirmary and slid under the nurse's desk. She sat there until the nurse came in and pulled her out, looking at her bedraggled appearance. ‘I was told you were in need of special medication for needs you do not remember. Take these, now go and get some food in the great hall there should still be some students eat there and then go rest for the remainder of the day, I’ll have someone give you reports of your lessons for the next week as these pills will make you very sleepy in the beginning. Now off!’ She pushed Lyall out and the little girl staggered slightly to the great hall as she looked at the bag of pills she’d been given in a confused manner. ‘Needs I don’t remember?’ she said aloud, dumping her bag on the floor and grabbing a piece of bread from the end of the table.

The spring was coming up slowly, but certainly. Soft raindrops were gently ticking the glass of the massive windows of the Hogwarts castle. Most students were inside, either having class or reducing the giant piles of homework they were having. Lesath Black was one of the few that wasn’t inside, together with his elder brother Saiph. They were out in the courtyard, having a friendly spar. The lights were visible from afar, flickering in all kinds of different colors. Some of the students were looking out of the windows, watching the magic fly past the window and creating a more marvelous experience than fireworks could. Lesath was fiercely using his wand. He too was capable to wield his wand nonverbal, so it was a surprise for Saiph which spell would try to hit him this time. Nonetheless, he knew his little brother well enough to know what spell he would pick and could easily dodge and repel his attacks. Saiph himself wasn’t using his wand, as he was skilled enough with it already. The training he needed was more to control wandless magic. Saiph summoned a giant dragon. He would control it flawlessly, guiding it with his hands. The ways he pointed at, the dragon would go to. Lesath turned a little paler. He hadn’t seen that one coming, and didn’t immediately feel like being cooked. He rapidly summoned giant bird made of water, again without pronouncing the spell. He frowned. Nonverbal magic needed a whole deal of concentration, which he obviously lacked. Lesath was a dreamer, unlike his brother. He was calmer, and wouldn’t often hang around other people than his family – like a wolf in a pack. His bird could eventually overwhelm the dragon his brother had summoned, but it did tire him a lot to control spells on a scale like that one. “Let’s… continue another time,” Lesath carefully proposed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Saiph nodded, flicked his brother’s nose and then grinned. “Let’s go back inside,” he said. He didn’t mention having skipped Defense against the Black Arts. He’d not skip next class, Potions Class. Snape would get back at him if he did another time. And Saiph already wasn’t very good at potions – he was a true man when it came to cooking, even magical cooking.

During Defense against the Black Arts, Thomas was looking out the window nearly all the time, not really paying attention to their professor. He knew basically every spell they were handling, and would rather think out new ones himself instead of listening to their boring professor. The lights of the training duo passed their windows too, and the red, blue, purple, yellow, green, … reflected in Thomas’ eyes. He seemed distracted by his own thoughts. Suddenly he turned around and looked at Casper. “I don’t feel like staying in class,” he mentioned. “Next is Snape’s Potion Class.” He paused a little, frowning. “He’s a good teacher, but I just don’t like potions.” Before class would even end, Thomas gathered his books and shoved them in his bag. He waited a little more until class would eventually end. “I’m not going to potions,” he noticed. “If you need me, I’ll be at the dorms, the library … perhaps outside.” It sounded unlikely he would go outside, despite the fact that Saiph was there. Maybe just because Saiph was there. Thomas glanced at Casper. “If you’re not going either, tag along.” He slipped outside the class and first of all went to the library. He wanted to do some research on a new spell he was inventing, but needed to get into the forbidden section for that. Little information could be found on the subject elsewhere in the library.

Casper was actually paying attention for once and didn’t notice Thomas speaking to him right away. Although he already knew nearly every single spell, he wanted to improve his knowledge of counter-spells. He turned his head towards Thomas but his eyes were still following the class. “Hm?” He finally looked at Thomas. “You’re ditching potions?” He asked, as if he hadn’t heard anything of what Thomas had just said. “I’m going, for sure. Potions are one of those classes I actually need to pay attention to, you know. It’s not enough to remember the instructions.” He tilted his head at Thomas. “Shouldn’t you go too? I mean. Snape’s a real pain in the ass, but still.” He shrugged and then returned his attention to class, smiling. He was in a rather good mood, and it wasn’t because of the teachers’ hilarious expressions.

Jake once again found himself sitting with his back leant against one of the many shelves of books in the restricted section. He had dived into the world of dragons, and didn’t seem to be able to get contact with. Not that the library was a noisy place, or that anyone but him was in the restricted section; but he got that dreamy look upon his place. He had read the book before, as he had with most of the books in the library. He didn’t care much for herbs or history, but everything regarding spells, magical creatures, magical objects and the history of Hogwarts he knew. Even so he knew where to find any sort of book, as he spent most of his time reading. If anyone but Hermione were to be called a nerd, it was Jake. He had never really been into sports, or anything else that might lead to injuries, but in return he knew everything about it. “Awww cute!” He thought, lightening up. He had spotted a proper picture of a newborn dragon, of the Hungarian Horntail type. He stroked the picture with his finger, admiring the creature. Jake had always wanted to see a real life dragon, but had never had the guts to.

Lyall had gone to her house and dropped her bags on the floor then left again with her note book and her wand. Briefly she thought she'd write a letter to her parents, but decided against it since they'd end up being worried about her studies. She went to the library instead and went hunting for something to pull her attention away from what happened the previous night. Nothing caught her attention however and she peered around the giant room before slinking towards the restricted section. She spotted someone in there but she hoped he wouldn't really notice her as she slipped in and began to hunt around for another book to read. There wasn't any particular reason she did this, Lyall just tended to enjoy it. She'd finish all the books in the library her first year here, even though she hadn't been able to pronounce all the words, Lioslaith had helped her in understanding them, by sneaking her into the Ravenclaw common room. Her first year as her only peaceful year, until her parents' names had come into the paper as they helped prevent a prison break out of Azkaban, causing them to get into the spotlight. They'd mentioned Lyall fondly and she'd hidden under her bed for days trying to get away from the hateful words of the other Slytherins. The du Toits were famous for being such a mixed family, accepting everyone as who they were no matter the house their magical abilities or qualities. It frustrated many, many people because it made them look bad. Lyall carefully slipped past the boy who sat there and noted he was reading a book on Dragons. Sitting her bag down at the end she began to climb up to the top shelf and looked for books there, a light twinkle in her eyes as she did this.

Thomas indeed went to the library and slipped in the forbidden section. He couldn’t find anything on the subject he wanted, however, and decided to return back to the Slytherin dorm. He would have to find someone who knew anything about the matter if he wanted to figure out how to create this spell, but was well-aware nobody would actually even tell him, even if they would know. Thomas thought of going to see Dumbledore soon, to talk to him about the events of last night. Before he arrived at the dorms, he changed his mind. He didn’t feel like being around all those giggly chatterboxes that called themselves women, nor around that noisy bragging sixth-year, Malfoy. He randomly picked a window and sat on the windowsill, looking at the Quidditch field. Oh how he sometimes wished he hadn’t been there. He breathed on the window and started drawing little figures on it. He decided to write Dumbledore instead of going to his office – that old geezer was creepy in his own way, and he’d rather avoid being alone with him – as he drew a little wolf on the window. He knew Snape would be outrageous for skipping his precious potion class. Though last time he had been yelling at Thomas for brewing a hair lotion instead of the objective they had gotten.

After potions class, Casper decided to do some exploring. He needed a new hideout after all, the forbidden forest didn’t seem to be forbidden to as many as it should. He wandered the halls without really having a destination, and without noticing it, he was almost at Dumbledore’s office. He stopped before rounding the corner to elevator-passage as he heard Dumbledore was talking to someone. Casper didn’t hate the headmaster like many Slytherins, but he didn’t like running into him either. The old man always seemed to know more than he should. He sighed and leaned up against the wall, intending on staying there until the headmaster and whoever he was speaking to would leave. He then heard something being mentioned that perked his interest. A transfer student? Those were rare, especially midterm. He hoped it wouldn’t be another muggleborn, and then he decided on going back the way he had come. The two talking didn’t seem to want to finish up anytime soon.

Jake had reached the end of the book, and closed it with a sigh. He had hoped there were more pages. He started packing up his things, and as he bent up, his shoulder hit something hard. As Jake never really cussed, the following words in reaction to the pain would be rather hilarious to people that didn’t know him; ”By dragons breath, Dumbledore’s old socks and Snape! What was that?!” His eyes widened as he noticed the large ladder swaying threateningly from the push, and the small girl atop of it. “Gosh I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push it. I thought I was alone and…” The excuses continued, and Jake seemed to distracted by his own apologies to think of even trying to stabilize the ladder.

Lyall's grip tightened on the latter and she squeaked loudly as the boy bumped into the ladder. She looked down at him with a slightly grim expression before pulling out a book on animagus. Stepping down unsteadily she fell the last bit as the ladder suddenly fell down and she hit the deck roughly. Moaning she sat up and put her hand against the small off her back rubbing it in an attempt to ease the pain. She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before standing up slowly and looking around for the pills she'd been given by the nurse. They rolled towards the other boy and she held her breath wondering if they were friendly or not. Someone alone reading about Dragons must be reasonably friendly, she assumed as she picked up the book on Animagi and began to bite her lip, her fingers crackling slightly with weak magic sparks. 'I'm sorry, I should've mentioned the ladder.' she apologized, bowing to the other boy as she heard him mumbling his apology over and over again. She rose and pushed some hair away from her face, smiling at the boy nicely. 'I'm Lyall Mortimer d- Oh it's you! Uhm... Uhm... I think, Jake? she tried holding out her hand slightly. Jake had previously saved her from Saiph when she accidentally bumped into him earlier in the year. She smiled at him, 'I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, I was sort of looking for something.' She looked at her hand and realized it was the one that Lesath had bitten, in fact now that she'd cleaned it even though it was just a small one it still looked pretty bad. On her face as a small bruise from when she was hit by Casper, even though it hadn't been there earlier it'd started to manifest very slowly. To most it would look like an ink mark that got smudge.

Saiph walked into the library, his hair sticking to his face with sweat. He casually passed by Lyall and Jake, not really interested in what they were doing or talking about, but his eyes seemed to catch the titles of their books anyway. “Animagi and dragons,” he noticed out loud as he turned towards the bookshelves. He gestured with his wand and a book floated towards him, without him having said a word nor having to use a ladder. “Some interesting subjects,” he continued casually. “Ever seen one in reality?” He didn’t really say to which of the subjects he was referring to, but neither did he look at any of the other two. He just opened the book and skimmed through the pages, obviously looking for something. It apparently wasn’t in the book, because Saiph randomly let go of it. Instead of dropping, it floated, closed and flew back to its spot it had been standing on. “Well see you,” he said, without waiting for an answer to the question. He disappeared between the vast amounts of books. Soon after, Lesath came by, seemingly confused as to where his brother had gone off to. When he noticed Lyall, he turned a little red, ashamed of him biting her, but didn’t say a word and slipped past them, following his brother, as he seemed to know where he had gone to, like he could smell him and track him down like a police dog.

Jake grinned and ran his fingers through his golden locks nervously. “Yeah, it’s me. Jake. I’m really sorry for bumping into the ladder. You could’ve gotten seri~What happened to your hand?” He sounded worried. “It looks bad. Was it some dog? I could help you treat it you know, if- oh you were already at madam Pomfrey I should’ve known. Everyone goes there but I could in fact treat it. I read about it you see and…” He stopped, taking a long gasp of air. “Sorry. I babble a lot.” Jake blushed slightly and got busy staring at his feet. When he glanced back up he froze slightly at the sight of Saiph before closing his eyes shut and raising his shoulders nervously. He opened them again when Saiph talked to them, or to himself, in a tone that wasn’t very scary. “No, never. I would really…” Saiph had left again and Jake blushed further. He had almost rambled out another monolog. “What were you looking for, Lyall? I most likely. Most definitely. Know where to find it.” Staring rather confused at Lesath as he passed by, Jake raised his hand in a faint wave. “I thought the restricted section was… restricted.” He mumbled.

Lyall looked at the two Black brother and looked at the ground the minute Lesath walked in. She then looked up and Smiled at Jake. 'It's okay, I haven't actually gone to Madame Pomfrey with the hand. I thought it'd be best for it to heal on its own. You know?' her voice was void for any happiness the minute the bite came into the picture of the conversation and she quickly let her sleeve fall over it. 'I was actually looking for a book talking about Metamorphs having memory black outs, then realized that maybe Animagi had the same problem.' She held the book tightly in her grasp and relaxed a little, realizing he probably didn't know she was a Metamorphmagus. Very few knew that the du Toit Clan leader was always a Metamorphmagus, even though they were the rarest form of wizardry that'd always at least one in every fifth generation so they never ran out of possible leaders. Lyall looked down at the floor a little as this thought crossed her mind, realizing that the competition for the lead Branch was drawing nearer, and it also meant she'd need to fight her cousins. 'Why aren't you in class?' she questioned, in a small hope to change the subject.

Thomas, who was still sitting in the window of one of the castle halls, looked outside, noticing a strange man walk away from the castle grounds. Apparently not a student, nor a professor. He took a closer look, noticing it was someone from the ministery. Strange, he thought by himself. Lately the ministery was here far too often, in his opinion. He slid off the windowsill and walked back to the Slytherin dorms.

Casper eventually found himself back at the Slytherin common room, and slid down into one of the sofas by the fireplace. His eyes reflected the green shimmering fire and he started dozing off, his head dropping and his body slowly tilting over. Shortly after he had pulled his feet up into the sofa, occupying all the seats with his long slim body. He lay on his back, and his one arm laid across his face to shield his eyes from the light. He seemed unnaturally relaxed, as if he had forgotten the past events.

“I’ve never had any blackouts.” Jake mumbled and got rather thoughtful. “But maybe…” He walked over at one of the shelves furthers into the restricted section, and after scanning the books briefly he pulled out a thick, dusty book with the title “Magical beings and diseases.” He dusted it off and handed it over to Lyall. “If any book has the answer, that should be it.” He then started packing up his things, tying his books together with his wand and then dragging them along- “I’ll see you around, Lyall.” He grinned at her, choosing not to answer her question about class.

She took the book gratefully and bowed her head as she left the library herself, returning to the commonroom. She entered without having a second thought that someone else was in there and quickly dumped all ehr stuff on the ground, kicking her shoes off so that they flew across the room and hit the wall then the sofa. She pulled her hair lose and shook it, smiling as it changed colour from chestnutbrown to bubblegum pinka nd then blue then back to her original colour. It was something she enoyed doing when alone, just to practice a little. She looked around the sofas and chairs, not spotting anyone in the room and smiled in a light way. However, soon a second feeling coiled itself into the smile, and then the little girl opened her eyes again, the usually unchangable eyes had changed to a different shade of blue entirely. This new shade gave off a slight deranged look to them and she pranced over to the sofa and looked into the fire. She leant against the soft back of the furniture and stared, emptily into the fire. A voice slightly unlike her own, etched itself from her vocalcords and she ran her hand through her hair, as the fingers left the trail a blue colour stained the brown again. The raspy voice held onto the air as it left a rather clear message, 'I should've been closer.. those damn Gryffindor brats wouldn't have survived.'

There was something strange going on that evening, a couple of people had probably already noticed. Not one, but two people were missing from the teachers' table at the front. The most obvious missing person was Hagrid, as due to his posture both his presence and absence were noticed first. Apart from him, however, McGonagall was missing too. Her absence was not instantly noticed by a lot of people, because her looks were not the ones that jumped in the eye the most. She however was someone who never failed attending any meals, and therefore somewhat strange to be missing out. 'What possible reason could there be fore McGonagall to be late for dinner in the Great Hall?' students would be wondering. There was no reason to worry, however, as the faces of the other professors at the table would not carry any obvious trouble. A frown could be seen here and there among the ones who were talking, but that could just as much be a more serious subject of conversation as it could be discussing the two others' absence. In the middle of dinner then, when all students apart from a few exceptions were present, the doors of the Great Hall opened. Hagrid walked in, causing several students of all Houses to turn their heads in his direction. The big man was carrying a small stool and the Sorting Hat with him. By the time he put the piece of furniture in front of the teachers' dining table and the Hat on top of it, it probably had caught the attention of half of the students present in the Hall.

Thomas quietly sat down at the Slytherin table. He was later than usual, having been at the library again. The Sorting Hat had him confused. He hadn’t heard of transfer students before, and had always expected them to be sorted in private. He frowned and looked at the stool that was being placed at the front of the hall. His attention was shortly distracted by Mrs. Norris, who was sneaking past the table and his failed attempt to pet her. Then he looked up at the Gryffindor table, where Saiph had arrived at a moment ago. Their eyes crossed for a short second, exchanging the knowledge neither knew what in heaven’s name was going on.

Shortly after Thomas had entered the hall, the Gryffindor Saiph joined his house table and sat down next to his little brother. “What’s with the Hat?” he questioned his brother, who threw a glance at his elder brother. “Dunno,” he shortly replied, focusing back on the hat. “I guess some transfer student or something.” Saiph shrugged, not really caring. He cared very little about stuff, especially not other students, unless they belonged to his house or carried a certain name. He threw a glance at the Slytherin table, catching Thomas’ eyes. They exchanged a glance of confusion, telling each other neither knew what was going on.

Lyall was late for dinner simply due to the fact that she'd been hiding out in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom reading the book she'd been given by Jake. A lot of the Slytherin girls from her dorm had started to avoid her even more, and she'd taken it on as her hiding place, without bothering the bullied ghost. She eventaully felt hungry and had begun to make her way to the great hall when her memory had failed her. She'd been walking towards the great hall and suddenly she was on her broom about to curse an unknowing student. She'd ignored this however, she'd ingored it with all her will power and made a run for the great hall, reaching it only in time to see the sorting hat and hearing a bunch of mumurs about an exchange student. She'd pushed her hair back and quickly sat by her cousin, Lioslaith and her fiance Owen Lewis. Owen had special permission to sit with Lioslaith, and Lyall... she'd simply changed into a Ravenclaw uniform to avoid the other Slytherins. Spesifically she was trying to avoid Thomas and Casper and even more so the Black Brother. The little girl had no need to see either of the pairs at the moment and she'd expressed this to her cousins, who'd come up with a solution, in which she'd gladly accepted. At the moment she had light blonde hair and was wearing a pair of contacts as the distinctive eyes of her du Toit Branch made hiding her identity slightly harder to those who looked.

Casper found himself completely calm while the rest of the Slytherin table started whispering about Hagrid and Minerva missing. Muffled gasps echoed throughout the great hall when people started noticing the Sorting Hat. Casper only shot a quick glance up at the stool and the hat before continuing to devour his food with great interest. Having overheard Dumbledore talk of a transfer-student, he had already guessed that’s what was happening. For some reason, Casper always seemed to know what was going to happen before it did. Maybe because of his large social network, or just because he happened to be at the right place at the right time. He had no intentions of letting the student disrupt his meal until absolutely necessary, and continued eating, happily ignoring everyone else’s mumbling.

“It’s been 37 years since Hogwarts had their last transfer-student.” Jake nudged another Hufflepuff student with his mouth full of something resembling a strawberry soufflé. “I wonder what this one did. The last one had set their teacher on fire. Apparently it happened regularly.” Jake had started one of his many babbling monologues, one of those no-one really paid attention to. “Or maybe! They found someone who haven’t been to a school of wizardry before! Man that ‘be exciting, right?” First now Jake realized the other Hufflepuff had turned away and was talking to someone else. He sighed deeply and placed his head in both his hands, his eyes locked on the Sorting Hat.

The big man had left the door open for the next couple of visitors. The second teacher who had been missing, now made her entrance: her footsteps at a quite rapid but firm pace, as usual, McGonagall would enter, barely a minute after Hagrid had taken his seat next to the rest of the teachers. Ciaran now walked in, with McGonagall some metres in front of him and escorted by the Auror that the Ministry of Magic had assigned him to, the one whose presence had been spotted and had risen questions by several students earlier that week. His expression was empty as his eyes went from one lengthy dining table that sided the aisle to another, before his attention went to the front of the Great Hall, the direction McGonagall was leading the two of them into. The teenager was not very tall and his black hair was slightly messy. Adding his rather pale skin up to that, even though it was not usually this pale, as well as the darker circles around his eyes, he did not give a very terrifying impression. He was wearing casual clothing. His buttoned shirt had some vague plaid pattern, in a bluish grey color, but it was mostly covered by a dark brown woollen, gender-neutral cardigan that he had inherited from his mother. His boots were black and slightly too big for him; one did not even have a lace. They had been bought - Or had they? One could not even be sure about that - a year ago, a couple of sizes too big so that they would certainly fit for a couple of years. People could easily claim him to be a Muggle, because like this, and certainly without any uniform, he did not look like a Wizard. His behaviour however, though it did not tell much, made him look completely comfortable with being there. Or, if not comfortable, then at least he did not look as if he felt uneasy or as if he was scared, the way a Muggle would look if he or she walked through a hall filled with Wizards in cloaks. When Ciaran arrived at the front of the Great Hall, the Auror went to stand next to him to overview the reaction of the other students, to keep them calm if he would deem it necessary. In the meantime, Albus Dumbledore had already risen from his chair as one of the other teachers - McGonagall being unable to accomplish this role as she was still standing, too - had a spoon touch the side of her glass to turn the students quiet. As soon as they had turned their attention fully to the front instead of to the gossips they were passing on to their neighbours, the head master would start speaking, "Dear students, upon request of the Ministry, we have been asked to keep an eye on this young man." His hand gestured in the direction of Ciaran, whose focus was all around the Great Hall, and currently shifted from the candles to the magical ceiling. Dumbledore continued, "As he has not yet had any previous magical schooling, he will most likely be joining classes of the different years, depending on where he's at with that specific subject. I would ask you to welcome him kindly in our midst." As Dumbledore took his seat again, McGonagall picked up the hat with her one hand as she had done for the first years in September, then to speak up loudly and clearly, "Ciaran Jack Lisburn, can you come up here and take a seat to be sorted?" The boy already turned around his head in the direction of the voice that addressed him, moving his attention first over to professor McGonagall and then to the stool and the Sorting Hat that she was holding, before he shortly nodded. He sauntered the short distance and flopped down on the stool, fitting his head under the Sorting Hat as if it was a small roof. It was soon was dropped on top of his head, and he felt an awkward chill go down his spine, even though he did not really feel scared. His eyes already went to the tables of the different houses. He had already figured out that this had to do with the flags and the uniforms in different colours, and was trying to analyse what kind of people they were.

“Mmmmmrrhm.” The hat uttered out loud before coughing, the old fabric stretching out atop of the boys head. The hat yawned and seemed to move the gap it had for mouth as if it was warming up. “It’s not often I have to pick a house mid-season. Perhaps I should sing the songs over for him?” The hat asked the students, grinning. As the students were all curious as to which house the boy would get into, most of them shook their head to get to the sorting part, and the hat snorted. “Very well then.” Adjusting itself atop of Ciaran’s head, the hat used legilimency to decide upon which of the four houses he was to be sorted into. “Hmm. You’re ambitious and intelligent, slightly cunning. You don’t however possess some of the other typical traits. You’re not a Hufflepuff, that’s for sure.” The hat declared to Ciaran and paused before continuing; “Brave, but not loyal, it can’t be Gryffindor. No, it would have to be either Slytherin or Ravenclaw.” After a pause of thinking the hat snickered; “Oh I know just where to put you." It then coughed to clear its voice before calling out; “RAVENCLAW!”

“Oh well,” Thomas sighed “He didn’t look much for a Slytherin. Too… small.” He was glancing at the young boy sitting on the stool. He made an annoyed gesture. “I highly doubt he’s got character, or skills, or anything whatsoever,” he continued, clearly finding himself superior to Ciaran. He looked at Casper, a little bit distracted from the sorting. “Say,” he then asked “When was the last time we had a transfer student? Or don’t you know.” It was more likely Casper didn’t know. Thomas glanced over his shoulder at the Gryffindor table, noticing Saiph sitting there. Apparently the white haired Gryffindor was not quite that fond of Ciaran either. They exchanged a glance and a dreadful smirk, showing both were thinking the same thing.

Lyall looked at the boy as he was called a Ravenclaw. She remembered when she saw sorted into Slytherin. She remembered the mixed feelings as the sorting hat called her too dangerous to be wise but too cunning to be kind. Leaving her in Slytherin even though she'd begged for Ravenclaw. She was a little jealous, but her parents didn't mind, so it didn't matter as much as she thought it'd do. Lioslaith caught her eye and smiled down at her, while Owen on the other side poked little Lyall. 'Don't be upset, you make a great Ravenclaw even if it's not official.' Lyall smiled and took a piece of bread from the plate. Across the room, she caught sight of Thomas and Casper, and briefly she wondered if they wondered where she'd been. Ever since the night a week ago she hadn't spoken to any one of them.

“Ehhrrrr.” Casper took some time scanning through several chapters of books in his head before shaking his head slowly. “We never learned that. Can’t say I’ve gone around asking.” He shrugged at Thomas, not particularly interested in the new student. He knew he’d go about and welcome him either way later as a part of his façade. “Did you see Lyall? I’ve yet to… you know.” Casper rolled his eyes as he avoided the word apology. It had never been his favorite part of being social, yet so many found it essential to maintain friends. “OH. When’s the next Quidditch match? I have to place a wager.” He asked Thomas, and suddenly everyone in hearing-range turned and started talking about the Quidditch game. Casper just shrugged at this, and waited for Thomas to answer.

“I knew it!” Jake gasped at the fact his predictions about the new student had been right, standing up by his seat so that every Hufflepuff started staring awkwardly at him. It didn’t take long before the small boy’s hair turned a bright red that matched his cheeks and he sat back down, suddenly incredibly interested in studying his food. Many were laughing at him already, and Jake seemed to sink down at his seat, making him look even more tiny and fragile than usual. His friend Austin had walked up behind him and put both of his arms around the tiny boy. “You knew what?” Austin teased, and Jake automatically elbowed his stomach. “Oh shut it.” The two of them exchanged a glance as the boy was sorted into Ravenclaw, Austin grinning. “You might get along with that one, he’s a smartass.” Jake lit up slightly at this.

Ciaran stood up already as soon as McGonagall took the Sorting Hat from his head. The name of the House he was sorted into sounded barely more than a word to him. Ravenclaw. It could just as much be a mash-up of syllables as it could have been a person's name. As he opened his mouth to ask what he was supposed to do now, he closed it again. In the moment the Great Hall had bursted into an applause, the teenager's eyes had already scanned the room. The Hogwarts logo came back to his mind. Four Houses... and four quarters in the logo, four animals and four colours. A raven instantly made him link Ravenclaw to the bird in the right bottom hand corner. Linking the traits the Sorting Hat had mentioned with the different houses, the bird seemed the most logical to go with the description of Ravenclaw, too. Ciaran's eyes went to the looks on the students' faces: who acted different? Would they look more inviting? But the Ravenclaw students were already kind enough to wipe away his last couple of doubts by moving away a bit so that he could sit rather at the head of the table. He walked over with a quite careless pace, not too firm and certain, but not showing any anxiety that could possibly be present. He shook his head somewhat so that the locks of black hair moved away from his eyes as he leant on the table with one hand and took a seat. He would find a way to get out of this... school, later. It was not yet a matter that needed to be taken seriously just yet, a school terrain was not exactly the hardest to run away from, he thought. The Auror the Ministry had sent as their watch dog would probably not stay on the school's terrain for more than a couple of days either. Ciaran turned his attention away from the front of the Great Hall, where the Auror was exchanging a few words with McGonagall now, towards the people that sat at the head of the table. He gave them his very charming smile. "I'm sorry I don't look all that energetic and kind," he apologised shortly, "but I just went through a couple of rough days and a tiring trip here." He was very well aware the professors were keeping an eye on him, as the Ministry had warned them about the potential danger he could form, being a completely untrained wizard.