13: Friends?

[Alaric's Pov]

"Mr.Grinedlwald, a word," Called the greased-hair professor.

Watching as my housemates walked away to their respective rooms, I stayed behind with Professor Snape, who waited for every student to leave the room.

When everyone left, I turned to the man, who was watching me with an unreadable expression. After some time of staring at each other, I finally decided to break the silence.

"Do you need something, professor?" I politely asked, sending a legilimency probe at the same time, only to be blocked by his mental defenses.

"I advise you Mr.Grindelwald, not everyone is ignorant enough to not train their minds," he said, in his monotone voice, without losing his incomprehensible expression. "I noticed your constant use of the mind arts during the feast, and I recommend you don't pull such a stunt in the near future. Inadequate use of the mind arts on the school grounds often leads to expulsion. But as a member of the esteemed house of Slytherin, I decided to take responsibility for you. I don't think I need to tell you what happens if I catch you doing anything of the same nature again,"

Fuck... I was careless. Even with all the magic I knew, my lack of interactions with other people lead me to forget that even if I was talented, I lacked something that would only come with time. Experience.

In front of me was an example of that. My talent in the mind arts wasn't that special compared to a man who spent decades perfecting his occulumency defenses. My sister and I would eventually reach his level faster than him, but that didn't change the fact that the potions professor in front of me was a powerful wizard.

"Thank you for the warning professor," I said. "Now, if you don't mind, I will go to bed. It's been a long day,"

Before I could walk away, however, the professor spoke to me again. "Should you find yourself troubled by the antics of the other houses, come to me. And I do hope, Mr.Grindelwald, that you don't let the sudden popularity in our house go to one's head, lest it affects your psyche," he said, turning around and walking away, his robes dramatically swaying without touching the floor.

After the professor left, I calmly walked in the direction of my room. Reaching its door, I slowly opened it. Entering the room, I saw three-poster beds that were covered in green eiderdowns with green curtains, and a wooden nightstand next to it. I was sharing the room with two other boys. Besides the beds, a wooden board was situated on either side of it. A wooden chair and dresser were located near the nightstand and the window. The walls and floors were made of stone. The dorm had a green carpet with the house crest in the center and two spherical lamps on either side.

I approached the bed that had my suitcase. Compared to my dormmates, who had a lot of luggage, my enchanted suitcase barely occupied any space. With a swish of my wand, most of my school materials appeared from the suitcase.

My robes quickly flew to the wardrobe, while the course books rearranged themselves on the table. The shoes carefully floated beneath the nightstand and the scrolls and parchments placed themselves in the drawers of the table.

With everything in order, I looked at the two other students sharing the room with me. Near the bed on my left, a tall, lanky, with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes, dark-skinned boy was looking at me, his eyes threatening of escaping his eye-sockets.

On the other side of the room, a rather tall, thin, but weakly built boy was trying to repair a weird magical clock. He was rabbity in appearance and was barely paying attention to me and the other kid.

I turned to the dark-skinned youth and finally introduced myself, "Alaric Grindelwald, a pleasure," I said, extending my hand.

The teen looked at me for a moment, before grabbing my hand for a handshake.

"Blaise Zabini," he said, with surprise etched on his face. "Say... are you really a relative from THE Grindelwald?" he asked.

From what I remember of the feast, Zabini was one of the few students who neither showed fear nor excitement at the mention of my family name. He had the same expression he has right now, curiosity.

"Does that really matter?" I responded with my own question. I read some of his thoughts and knew exactly what he wanted to know.

"I mean, he was basically the nemesis of the Headmaster. He was undoubtedly evil, no offense, but it's said that their final duel was legendary!" he said, like a true fanboy.

"None taken. And he did tell me about it," I chuckled.

While we were talking, the rabbit-looking boy finally noticed my presence. He carefully approached us, sitting beside Blaise.

"Did you meet him? Did he teach you some magic? If yes, then what type of magic?" Blaise continued his barrage of questions, with his eyes glinting, a thrilled look on his face.

I chuckled again. 'This is definitely new' I thought. By just reading his surface thoughts, I knew he had some interest in Grandfather, but not at this level. Deciding there was no problem in satisfying some of his curiosity, I told him about the different types of magic I learned from my grandfather, leaving out, of course, the more obscure ones.

That, however, only ignited my dormmate's curiosity more. Amidst our talk, the boy, whose name I was yet to know, finally talked.

"You said he taught you enchantments, right? Do you think you can fix this? It was a gift from my mother, but it broke during the trip," he asked, presenting me with the clock in his hands, looking dejected.

I barely spared a glance at the magical contraption, before silently, with a wave of my wand, applying some runes to the clock, making it work again. The boy, seeing me effortlessly repairing the clock, widened his eyes, speechless, not understanding what happened. Even so, the happiness of having his mother's gift working again toppled his shock at seeing me silently casting such a complicated piece of magic.

He looked at me, and quickly took my hand in for a handshake, "Thank you so much! This really means a lot to me... I'm Theodore Nott, by the way," he said, his hand scratching the back of his head after he realized he was yet to introduce himself.

From there, we spent some time talking with each other and getting to know each other better. Apparently, Blaise's mother had married seven different men and every single one of them died under 'mysterious' circumstances, leaving them quite a big fortune. As for Theodore, his mother had passed when he was nine, explaining his attachment to the clock she gave him.

What I liked the most about them was their non-bigoted views. Blaise's mother was a half-blood, meaning she educated her son about the prejudice the British wizarding society had against muggle-borns and half-bloods. As for Mr. Nott, Theodore's father, he apparently was as bigoted as they can get.

Be that as it may, Theodore didn't seem to think of muggle-borns and half-bloods as inferior. He had some pride in belonging to a pureblooded family, but nothing unhinged.

I also easily understood their personalities. On one hand, Blaise was rather calm but wore his heart on his sleeve, and he wasn't afraid of sharing his thoughts. Theodore, on the other hand, was quite reclusive, but appeared to be clever and inventive, having, after some time, understood the runes I had placed in his mother's clock.

They were quite friendly and didn't treat me any differently, even when they knew of my ancestry. We then talked for a few more minutes, before finally going to bed,

__________

I woke early, the sun was yet rose, but the sky was somewhat illuminated by it. After dressing in some exercise robes, I quietly got out of the common room, making my way outside the castle. Doing the same routine I had been doing for the past few years, I ended up returning to the dorms barely past seven.

The morning quickly came and with it the sounds of alarm clocks going off and birds chirping. I, Blaise, and Theodore quickly took a bath, one at a time. We quickly dressed, wearing our pristine clean house robes.

Before going to the Great Hall for breakfast, we grabbed our schedules. The first class was going to be Potions, with Gryffindor.

"I heard Professor Snape only gives house points to Slytherin, and that the other houses never got any points in his class," Blaise said, drinking some orange juice that the house elves had prepared.

"My father once said that Snape was relentlessly bullied when he was at Hogwarts. Maybe that's why he doesn't like the other houses," murmured Theodore, stuffing his mouth with bacon.

"Well, the better for us then," I said, "Wouldn't want to ruin Slytherin's nine consecutive wins in the house cup,"

It was quite early, and there were almost no students in the Great Hall. While I was offering the two boys to start exercising with me in the mornings, I noticed my sister coming in. She quickly looked at me, and enthusiastically waved her hand to greet me.

Some students at her table shot her angry side looks, and some outright stared at her. It was as if they were expecting her to cut ties with me just because we were in different houses. I knew about Gryffindor and Slytherin's rivalry, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from interacting with Lys.

Walking behind her were Hope and Hermione, followed by the Slytherin haters duo. Hope and Hermione just nodded to me, which I promptly ignored. I wanted nothing to do with the magic-messiah school clique. I was grateful that they quickly accepted Lysandra, even after knowing her name, but that didn't make me obliged to be their friend.

Soon it was time for the class, so we walked to the Potions classroom. Entering, we were separated into pairs. Blaise sat with Theodore, so I sat with the only one who was also without a pair.

"Can I sit here?" I asked the golden-haired girl, who was blankly staring at the front of the classroom. Hearing me talk, she turned to me, her cold expression never leaving her face. She stared at me for some time, without saying anything.

"I know I'm handsome, no need to stare so much," I chuckled.

Daphne just snorted and motioned for me to sit. "Why isn't Tracey with you?" I asked, not seeing the girl's best friend with her.

She looked at me again, before sighing. "She said that... I have to make friends," Daphne murmured, whispering the last part, with a blush creeping on her face.

'Cute' I thought. "Then I guess it's your lucky day miss. It's not everyone that can be friends with an extremely charming, handsome, and genius wizard like me," I joked.

Daphne looked at me with a grimace, but after some time she couldn't hide the smile that formed on her face.

I talked some more with her, while the rest of the classroom filled up. Some minutes later, the professor finally entered the class, with his robes swaying behind him.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class," he said, eyeing the whole classroom. "As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few... Who possesses, the predisposition... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death,"

His gaze briefly stopped on me, before he noticed Harry scribbling on a paper.

"Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention!" he said, stepping near Harry, who just looked at him, with a smirk plastered on his face.

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A/N: Sorry for the late chapter, I had an exam yesterday.

Also, I want to clarify some stuff.

1) There will be no Dumbledore bashing. However, I'll write basically a redemption arc for him.

2) As for Ron, I'll apply the same treatment. But as he won't be such an important character as Dumbles, don't expect much focus on him.

3) Now, an important question. Should I add the Cursed Vaults from Hogwarts Mystery?

That's all, hope you enjoyed the chapter!