My Boy

Dumbledore watched with a detached gaze as the trademark Grey eyes of Black and coincidentally, Malfoy - who had gotten the heritage from his own grandmother, stared at him.

There was a clear challenge in those two pairs of eyes - as if daring him to make biased assumptions and that they would bring their negligible but still considerable power at Hogwarts against him.

Amused at the pointed stare, Albus wondered if they would really dare and go against a Professor for a mudblood when both families were firmly entrenched in the Dark.

He had noticed the farce of friendship between Malfoy and Riddle and he had also heard the mutterings of Black coming to Riddle's rescue. He hadn't paid much mind to these children playing mind games with an intelligent but still a gullible muggleborn.

However, for them to stand silently and wait for his next course of actions like a bystander was more than he could digest or even permit them.

Even if he himself didn't hail from the sacred twenty-eight, he was still the Hier to The Minor House of Dumbledore and he wouldn't allow teens who yet had to see the world, question his authority.

Coming to a swift decision, he stepped down the stairs and looked around at everyone and then reprimanded, "Mr Malfoy and Mr Black, you should pay attention to proprietary. You have a fellow housemate lying on the ground and still, haven't made an effort to take him to the hospital wing. What am I to understand from your inactions?"

His words definitely had an effect on the Slytherins and he watched as Malfoy clenched his fists and took a step forward - no doubt, in order to question everything.

However, before Malfoy could voice his opinions and earn detention for his efforts, Black held him back and gave a minute shake of his head - the message clear - not to get involved in trifles for now.

Still, Black's eyes had hardened into pools of ice-cold emptiness and he gave him a bland smile.

With a picture-perfect pureblood posture, he stepped forward and asked, "Yes, Professor. We will take Riddle to Madam Pomfrey. I was just curious as to the punishment Dupont and his friends will receive. This is the second unprovoked altercation between them and Slytherins."

Silence reigned like a heavy stone all around them at that question.

Even though the hiers studying at Hogwarts were cognizant of the political power they would command once they graduated from school, Hogwarts was generally treated as neutral ground.

Hiers calmly accepted the decisions of the professors - who weren't really their equals in magical or political terms and the staff kept to their own business and didn't interfere much when hostility arose between differing factions.

Hence, Hier Black questioning Professor Dumbledore in such a manner was an unprecedented situation and this showed that House Black could break the stalemate if they so wished.

It seemed as if the long-held notions were at stake here and any wrong move on anyone's part could bring a maelstrom inside Hogwarts. Especially at a time when war and scare tactics were on a rapid rise.

Dumbledore tried to regain the lead in the conversation, "Now, my boy, you leave the punishment to me. I will see to it that they are duly punished and reprimand them seriously."

Black tilted his head to the side when he listened to those words and looked at Dumbledore as if trying to decipher the meaning behind his words.

After a beat of silence, he snorted and replied, "And pray tell, what would their punishment be? A loss of a handful of house points? A detention to be served with you where you ply them with sweets?"

The older man's eyes widened at the sharp questioning tone and in turn, his own voice turned severe.

"Mr Black, I assure you that everyone involved will have a befitting punish to their crime. You are skirting very close to crossing the line of being disrespectful towards your teacher. Stay your words if you don't want to be in trouble."

On his own, Harry had always realised the hypocrisy of one Albus Dumbledore but seeing it in person was an entirely different matter altogether.

He really had to marvel that such a bigoted person had somehow wrestled control of not one or two but three important positions in the Magical World and nobody had seemed opposed to it.

The handful of people who had tried to voice a different opinion had been drowned in spit of other Light Oriented and Declared families.

Just what games and politicking had this person done behind the scenes to hoard all the power to himself?

Even Fawkes had been his companion.

Had he really been a Light Lord or had some other extenuating circumstances forced Fawkes to pick the best out of a bad lot?

Still, he shook his head to remove the cobweb of irrelevant thoughts from his mind and just as he was about to say something, his words were cut off by Dumbledore.

"Now run along, my boys. It's better to take Mr Riddle to the infirmary as soon as possible lest it leaves lasting damage on him even though the fight was just a prank done in poor taste."

Hadrian Black became almost rigid at the dismissive tone in Dumbledore's voice and then cast a withering glare at the four boys - his threat of retribution clear in those grey eyes and with a nod towards Malfoy turned his back on the gathered people.

Malfoy picked Riddle with a Moblicorpus Charm to move Riddle's body and the pair didn't bother to turn back.

Just as Black was about to turn a corner, turned to face them with his side profile and said, "Professor, everything else aside, please don't ever call me as your boy. We have no familial relations and you are just my teacher as long as I am at Hogwarts. I don't like people trying to cosy up to me, so please refrain from doing that from here on out."

Finished with his words, he followed Malfoy who had already gone ahead and left a sputtering Dumbledore and an aghast group of four boys behind.