9
1975, 1 September.
"Slytherin first years, this way", a loud familiar voice spoke out. Turning to the voice, Polaris saw a raven-haired wizard with a Slytherin prefect badge on his robe. It was Jasper Avery, Corvus's cousin. He was tall, his hair neatly done, not a strand out of place. It was obvious that the Avery heir cared much about his looks. He was smiling gently at the young first years, then, of course, it was just a show.
Polaris unknowingly raised his brow as he assessed the older boy that had called for his year 'How did he make prefect? He's an outright bully, from what I've seen. Maybe he acts differently in school'.
Next to him was a thin brown-haired witch with small glasses that sat on her long nose, not looking particularly fond of having to lead the first years. Her hair was long, reaching past her shoulders, resting on them. Her hands were folded behind her while she, too, smiled at them all.
As the Slytherin first years shuffled towards the two, the two older Slytherins turned around and began to lead them away. As they began to make their way through Hogwarts, Jasper spoke up once again.
"My name is Jasper Avery, and this is Mud- Lucy, Lucy Richards," Jasper said, 'sweetly', Lucy shot him a quick glance, her eyes narrowed before looking away, ignoring the way he had said her surname.
"We are the Slytherin 5th year prefects. Each house has a number of six prefects, and if you have any questions, feel free to seek us out, be aware. Every prefect is allowed to give out punishments for misbehaviour, so watch yourself and don't embarrass our house."
"Do try to keep up", He spoke roughly again.
Corvus rolled his eyes as he heard his least favourite cousin speak, "What a sod, I'm still wondering how on earth he got that badge", Corvus whispered to Polaris as they stood close to one another.
Jasper slowed down as he continued speaking, "If you don't want to get in trouble for nothing, stay away from the Gryffindors, they'll do anything to have our house lose points", he drawled before he began to pick up his pace.
Eventually, they came across an open space that was filled with moving staircases. The female prefect finally chimed in, "This is the grand staircase. As you can see, the stairs move and constantly change. It may take some time for everyone to get used to how randomly they move. Sometimes you will be headed to a particular floor, and the staircase will shift, which will end up leading you to another floor instead."
"Oh, and just so you know, some of the steps are traps, so do try be careful", she added like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Why are there traps?" Polaris whispered towards Corvus. He started to wonder if he should have taken the time to read more in detail about Hogwarts.
Corvus shrugged his shoulders, "to trap people" he whispered, which was laced with sarcasm, Polaris huffed at the answer.
"It might have been said to scare us", a voice sounded from behind the two, making Polaris and Corvus turn around to see a face giving off no emotion.
"Ahh, it's you", Polaris found himself blurting out, "You're Kalen Nott, aren't you? I think we met last year," Corvus whispered.
Kalen nodded, "Yes", he responded, which quickly ended the non-existent conversation.
Polaris and Corvus instinctively sent each other a glance before facing forward again.
They walked along the gloomy hallway of Hogwarts dungeons, "Here we are", Jasper drawled, waving his hand at the bare wall, making the first years raise their brows at him.
The 5th year boy smirked, before speaking again, "Right here, behind the wall, is the entrance to the Slytherin common room. The password is 'Serpentis'. It changes every two weeks, so be sure to check the notice boards for the new password. Don't forget the password and don't tell anyone outside of Slytherin the password. No outsider has ever entered our common room, and we intend to keep that record." Jasper sternly said sending a cold glare their way.
He then whispered the word 'Serpentis', and the large stone wall slid open, amazing the first years.
They all walked inside the common room, gazing with interest at the elegant surroundings. The room was long and rectangular with a low ceiling. It had a greenish glow to it, and all the furniture seemed expensive and had an ancient feel to it.
Polaris glanced around, noticing one of the statues to be worth approximately 1000 galleons, 'they seriously trust a bunch of children to be near something or a sort?'.
The floor was stone, and the air in the room was chilly. Corvus shook his arms, trying to arm them, as he stared at the green coloured flames in the fireplace.
"Our common room is under the Black Lake. Do try not to be afraid if you see the Giant Squid swooshing by through the window. Also, it gets quite cold in the winter, so I suggest you learn a body-warmth spell," another Prefect, which Polaris assumed she was from her badge.
Another prefect that was standing in the room spoke, "Welcome to Slytherin. You are standing here because the sorting hat saw the cunning, ambition, and resourcefulness that Salazar Slytherin himself desired to see in his students."
"Slytherins stick together. We are usually the most respected and the most feared students. Take advantage of it. We have a reputation that we will uphold no matter what, understand?" another of the 6 prefects contributed as they stared pointedly at the first years.
The first years we all gathered around as they listened to their prefects speak "Our Head of House is Professor Horace Slughorn. He teaches potions, which I must say can be a hard subject, so try to study beforehand".
"Quite right, Mr Trent", A bubbly voice sounded, making everyone turn around. There stood their new head of House Horace Slughorn. He stood there with an amicable smile on his face.
"It's a pleasure to meet these new faces. I do hope your prefects have given you a gist of everything as of now. Every morning, you will be reporting to the great hall for breakfast by 8 am. If you don't want to go to class with an empty stomach, that is. I am well aware class starts at 9 am, but we wish to avoid all the chaos. Weekends are no expectations, of course".
"Any questions?" The man asked glancing at the new faces.
--
Polaris was lucky enough to be roomed with his friend Corvus. There was an odd number of first years, which resulted in the two friends being in a room of three students, themselves and another boy.
Aaron Flint, their third roommate, was a dark-haired, blue-eyed boy, who was the typical pureblood, nothing special, but at least he wasn't another other than that.
Throughout the night, the two got to know Aaron's character.
--
1975, 2 September.
Corvus and Polaris were seated at the very end of the long table, which was designated for the Slytherins. There weren't as many Slytherin in the hall as the night before. Most were first years which both Corvus and Polaris sat away for, not feeling the need to mingle with them.
Corvus glanced over Polaris's shoulder as he read the timetable, ignoring the noise surrounding the great hall as people had their breakfast. It wasn't nearly as full as it was the previous day when they had arrived.
"I don't think I'm too fond of this timetable", Corvus muttered as he narrowed his eyes at the page. "I too, am not fond of it. Though I'm excited to start the classes, to get a feel of them," another voice contributed. It was Elias Blecher, a fellow Slytherin.
"I don't think it's bad. Monday we have charms, history of magic and transfiguration, a nice way to start a week," spoke Polaris tiredly, seeing as he didn't plan on getting up to sit for breakfast. He had only come because Corvus dragged him along.
Corvus groaned as he dramatically leaned his head against the table, "So after breakfast, we have to go to charms? And why do the classes have to go all the way to 5?" Corvus groaned out. He had wanted something more exciting for his first class and hoped the day ended faster.
Polaris yawned unconsciously, "Well, no… I said that was on Mondays. It's Tuesday, Cor, so we'll be going to History of Magic by 9 am… and you're acting as though we don't get breaks between the classes," Polaris answered back unenthusiastically, trying to keep his eyes open.
"You know, now that I think about it… to my knowledge, in our third year we have to choose at least 2 more elective classes. I wonder how that will work out if our current classes fill the entire day up".
"Merlin", Corvus whispered under his breath. He had thought Hogwarts would be a breeze. "You're just being dramatic now", Elias mused as he read through his timetable, "He is, isn't he?"
"Excuse you!" Corvus snapped at them.
Polaris continued speaking, "In our first two years here, we will be learning a lot of theory in the lessons. Then once our magical knowledge foundation is more robust, we will spend less time in classes. By our third year, we will have a basic understanding of our subjects, and the teachers will be spending less time lecturing and spend more time doing practical magic with us, which wouldn't take as much time. With that, we can pick up an additional class in our third year" Polaris took a deep breath after speaking without taking any breaths.
"Um… alright, how do you know all that stuff?" Corvus muttered, and he fiddled with his fork.
Polaris rolled his eyes, "You act like I don't have brothers here at Hogwarts already, and I've read a bit. Corvus, you should at least know some of that stuff. Did you not ask your cousins anything about Hogwarts?" Polaris asked with a raised brow.
Corvus shrugged, "No? I don't like holding conversations with them; you know that they're so annoying, and we barely have anything in common," Corvus responded with a shrug.
He then leaned towards Polaris and whispered, "-all Jasper likes to talk about is dark magic and stuff. He's been getting into it a lot lately-"
Corvus leaned back to his chair, "-and then there's Aura, all she cares about is social standing and being proper. It gets tiring having to live with them two. I think the only thing Jasper and I have in common is riding our brooms… do you hang out with your brothers then? And what about you, Blecher?" Corvus asked.
Blecher shrugged his shoulders, "I have two older sisters, no brothers. I can't say I get along with them, nor can I say I do? I guess we just have a mutual agreement to not bother each other. The eldest is Elsa. She's already done Hogwarts, so it's not like I could even tell you what she's doing with her life. Then there's my other sister, Penelope; she's in her third year. I couldn't even tell you what electives she chose." Elias told them.
"Yeah, I somewhat the same as Elias", Polaris laxly said, "The three of us just keep to ourselves most of the time."
"Wow, you guys sound like you have boring lives… I mean, sure, I don't get along with them particularly, but we still cross paths a lot, like all the time, that I could tell you what Aura's, my cousin's favourite shoe brand is- ridiculous stuff, really." Corvus turned his gaze to Blecher, "Then Elias, are your siblings close with each other since their girls?"
Elias' face scrunched up, shaking his head, "Nope, strange, I know." Corvus nodded curtly before turning towards Polaris, "And you," he pointed at his friend, "I thought you and Regulus were close or something, don't you hang out with him?" Corvus asked curiously.
"Well, I guess you could say I'm closer to Regulus than I am to Sirius, but that doesn't mean we hang out all the time. He spent a lot of time with our mother during the summer-"
Polaris leaned over to Corvus and whispered just as he did only mere minutes ago, "I think he's learning unforgivables-".
He leaned back, "-but I'm not too sure. I don't exactly stick around to check".
"Learning what?" Elias asked, feeling left out of what was said, "nothing." Polaris responded as he picked up his fork.
Corvus's eyes twinkled with wonder, "Really?! I tried to get my uncle to teach me one…" he spoke, earning an elbow to the gut from Polaris, earning a glance from Elias, the boy's brows furrowing.
Corvus scrunched his face, "What was that for!?" rubbing the side that Polaris had hit.
Polaris glanced around the half-empty hall.
"Right… anyways, he said I was too young, so I think he'll teach me when I'm older. Are you planning on learning any?".
"Um, I don't know? I mean, what would I even use them for, but maybe I'll learn them just in case I'm in a situation where I need to use one," Polaris said slowly.
"Hm, well, anyway, I'm sure we'll be getting some house points in the first lesson. After all, our house head is the professor-" Corvus boasted before grabbing Polaris's timetable from the table.
"-Who do we have the class with?" Corvus spoke aloud as he traced his finger along with the sheet, "Oh, great…." Corvus said as he looked up at Polaris, "What?" Polaris asked, curious himself to what house they'll be having this class with.
"We have it with Gryffindor. That means we'll have to see those two again," Corvus said, referring to Willow Smyth and Nathaniel Sayre, making Polaris snort. "Who?" Elias asked curiously, "Oh, Sayre. I don't know if you know him." Corus said, "Nathaniel Sayre?" Elias asked.
Corvus nodded, surprised he knew who he was refereeing to, "Yeah, him. Polaris and I had to sit with him on the carriage and his mudblood friend. It was dreadful. She kept going on and on about how all us Slytherins are inbred gits and dark wizards- blah, blah, blah. I have a headache just thinking back to it."
"Right, oh! She called me a cousin-"
"-Hey, can I hold on to this" Corvus asked Polaris as he slapped his hands together, hoping for the answer to be 'yes'.
Polaris grabbed his timetable back and gave his friend a narrowed glare, "No, it's not my fault your cat ripped yours to shreds", he said as he rolled his eyes. "You can probably ask our House head for a new one," Elias told Corvus.
Corvus turned to him, "And be the only Slytherin to ask?! I don't want him to give a bad impression," then he turned to Polaris again, "Oi! You told me you could use a spell to put it back together, so you could easily fix it, yet you refuse! You're just annoyed that I didn't let you sleep a bit longer, right?!" Corvus hissed.
Polaris ignored him.
"Oi, say something!" Corvus spoke out again, only to be responded with a yawn from Polaris.
"Elias, we should head to class. Better to leave earlier to navigate our way there," he finally spoke as he folded the timetable into his pockets.
"So, you really aren't going to fix this", Corvus said as he began fumbling his hands with the shredded pieces while his cat Loki curled at his feet. Polaris stood just as Elias, "You should probably put your cat back in the dorms unless you plan for a show and tell in class," Elias drawled, staring under the table.
--
"Did you know there are a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts?" Polaris randomly spoke up as they headed towards their first class.
"Huh? What, no. Am I Supposed to?" Elias drawled out as he glanced around the hall.
Polaris opened his mouth to speak, "-You know what, don't answer that when we get there, we're not sitting in the front, we'll sit in the-" Elias interrupted.
"We're not going to sit in the back either. The middle is fine," Polaris spoke.
Elias picked up his pace and stood in front of Polaris, making him come to a stop, "I'm pretty the back seats are closer to the door".
Polaris sighed and walked around him and continued on his way while Elias matched his pace, "We haven't even started any classes, and he already wants to leave them", Polaris whispered mostly to himself, which of course, Elias heard.
"…I guess sitting in the back won't make a good impression."