What´s on the menu? Wax and foreshadowing.
The great hall was illuminated by torches. You might think the thousands of candles that floated over their heads would participate in spreading light, but the sad reality was that the only thing they did was letting wax drip on students. Henry groaned as a particularly large piece of wax fell on his head and from there into his soup.
It was the start of term feast and the first years had just been sorted. Across from him Mina Harker was poking her friend with a fork. The boy had muddy blonde hair and wore some weird kind of greenish cap he refused to take off. Maybe, Henry thought, it was because of the candles over them, but on second thought that theory didn’t make any sense since the rest of the castle didn’t have floating candles. Abraham Van Helsing slapped Minas attempt to stab his arm with a fork away and continued to eat his food slowly while simultaneously trying to light a cigarette under the table. He was a pothead if Henry ever knew one but somehow Abraham managed to master all his classes, even acing in Defence against the dark arts. He and Mina had been friends for as long as Henry could remember and very good friends if he dare say so himself. When Mina broke up with her boyfriend last term Van Helsing almost hexed the guy because he made a scene.
Henry focused on his soup again which was full of wax by now.
“How do you guys do that?” he frowned at Mina and Abraham.
“Do what?” the black-haired girl asked while picking a piece of wax from her hair.
“Keep your food wax-free.”
“Magic.” Abraham answered with his mouth full of soup.
“Abe, please swallow your food before you talk.”
“What do you mean?” he looked at Mina and grinned. Henry noticed a piece of pumpkin was stuck between his teeth.
“Can you lot be quiet?” Creature groaned at them form a few seats away, “Dumbledore wants to give a speech.” And indeed, the headmaster stood in front of the teachers table, ready to talk. The hall quieted down, and he began talking, his voice filling the hall.
Henry listened as well as he could as the headmaster went on about “another year at Hogwarts”, welcome first years, rules, and on and on. He felt Edward getting fidgety and hoped he would find a way to let the insolent headache of a split personality out soon.
I heard that!
You better did!
“And now let me introduce to you: Our new Defence against the dark arts teacher-“
Henry heard Sherlock sigh somewhere on the table.
“Here we go again.” Mina elbowed Abraham.
“All the way over from Transylvania” Dumbledore continued, “Professor Dracula.”
A half-hearted clapping filled the great hall. Henry heard Sherlocks head hit the table.
The new guy stood up and waved a bit. He was an elderly man, Henry couldn’t quite pin down his age, with withering white hair. The professor was dressed in Robes that reminded a little bit too much of Victorian England-
At least the chap´s got style.
Shut the FUCK up, Edward!
Ahem. His coat was black, and a red jewel held his white collar in place. The man didn’t grin very bright, but as far as Henry could see from the Ravenclaw table, his teeth were of an unsettling white. Speaking of unsettling, Henry found that something was off with the man’s eyes. He couldn’t pin down exactly what it was, but the look of them gave him goosebumps which was an achievement, as Henry wasn’t scared easily. He turned to Mina, who seemed not bothered at all by the look of their new teacher.
“Don’t you think he´s a bit weird?” he whispered.
“I mean he’s old and ugly but that’s normal for professors I think.” She shrugged and looked at Abraham who was staring at the professor.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You don’t seem to like him.” She poked his arm again only to receive a glare.
“Well” said Henry, “he just doesn’t look too trustworthy.” Abraham nodded to that.
Are ya kidding? He looks like a gothic pimp!
Wrong fandom, Hyde.
Wrong what?
I will not elaborate further.
Mina sighed and waved her hand dismissively. “You guys are just mean.”
Henry raised an eyebrow. “You said he´s ugly.”
“I mean I´m not wrong...” Mina trailed off, pouting. Abraham sighed again and concentrated on his soup, sliding the cigarette in his coats pocket. Henry looked at his soup. It was now not only full of wax, but also cold. This was a magic school why wasn’t the soup still warm? Couldn’t they just magic the soup to stay warm? And wax-free?
Henry let out a deep sigh. He would have to grab Victor and work on a device that would keep their soup warm. Maybe they would get it done faster if Sherlock or Mycroft would help them but neither of the brothers had something left for mad science projects, so Henry was stuck with the only person who was willing to participate in said mad science projects and that person was sadly Victor Frankenstein who, and that was a miracle, hadn’t dropped out of school yet, despite constantly whining about how unfair and hard everything was and that he could do everything better on his own.
Victor was that kind of person that doesn’t study and then blames his failing on the teacher. He also was a Gryffindor, which meant he ran in all kinds of trouble without thinking it through and got out of the mess by creating a bigger mess that cancels the first one out.
But despite everything Victor Frankenstein was a good lab partner for mad science projects, like inventing a flamethrower (they still had to test that one) or mixing chemicals together and putting them on your hair. It turned out the chemicals they had put on strands of Victors (formerly) black hair were hydrogen peroxide. That was the story how Victor got his white strands and he and Henry detention for a week for also causing a fire.
But for now Henry just groaned and abandoned his cold wax-soup.