First night, First fight
New blood joins this earth
And quickly he’s subdued
Through constant pained disgrace
The young boy learns their rules
Arcturus followed the girl quietly as they walked towards the entrance hall.
“This is one of the easy ways to the Dungeons.” Said Gemma Farley the prefect, her luscious black hair in her pony tail was swaying as she walked.
Arcturus stopped in his track, his grey eyes wide and as pale as the ghosts of the castle. “T-the dungeons?” He swallowed.
It took everything in Gemma not to laugh at Arcturus’ reaction. She thought only if she wasn’t so tired from managing all the first years tonight, she would’ve enjoyed messing with this naïve first year.
“The Slytherin common room, that’s where we are going.” She smiled pointing at the door near the entrance hall. “I’m taking you there through this door.”
Arcturus, somewhat relieved, smiled despite his embarrassment. He was still trying to process the fact that he was sorted into Slytherin. Although due to him always only hearing about Slytherin house back at the Malfoy manor and how incompetent the other houses were, at least being a Slytherin made sense to him.
“Saw peeves going after the Gryffindors, so we should go this way before peeves bothers us.” She added, opening the door for Arcturus.
“Peeves?” Arcturus asked, following Gemma down the marble staircase.
The temperature was dropping and it was eerily quiet once they walked through the door.
“A poltergeist. He doesn’t listen to anyone but Bloody Baron,” Gemma looked at him for a moment with an embarrassed look. “I mean…Baron Black.”
Arcturus shrugged, a snort followed his tiny smirk. “Bloody Baron sounds more fitting.”
Gemma didn’t seem to know what to make of this reaction, she continued walking, keeping a wary eye on him.
“Right,” She said, rushing down the stairs, making Arcturus’ tired feet ache trying to keep up with her. “We’re almost there, you see that wall? The password to the Slytherin common room is pure blood.”
The dungeons were cold and darker than he’d expected, not much caught his eyes besides the flaming torches on the walls. It reminded Arcturus of the cellar in the Malfoy manor.
Gemma stopped in front of a bare stretch of a stone wall. “Pure blood.” She spoke firmly to the wall.
For a brief moment Arcturus wished nothing would happen so she would look ridiculous talking to a wall. He managed to swallow his grin and dropped his head.
When the door appeared, Gemma was first to enter. “Er… this is the Slytherin common room. It’s past curfew so I’ll let you get to your room. First year dormitories are farthest from the common room entrance.”
Arcturus nodded, taking in his surrounding as much as he could. Statues of two mermaids on his left were the first things he saw in the Slytherin common room. The common room itself was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. The sound of an indoor waterfall soothed his sleep deprived mind.
“Here he is. I suppose he’s been waiting for you in the common room.”
Arcturus followed the direction of Gemma’s gaze and there he was, his ancestor. Baron bloody Black, standing next to one of the black button-tufted leather sofas.
“Guess I can go now.” Gemma said, her arms crossed and her tone dry.
Arcturus smiled politely. “Thank you.”
Baron approached him from across the room where the lighting gave a greenish hue to almost everything in the common room, his silvery figure floating mid-air steadily. “Good evening young Black, Welcome to Slytherin.” his tone was happier than Arcturus expected. “Glad to finally have a member of my family in Slytherin again. It’s been years.”
Although it took Arcturus by surprise to see someone and not just anyone, his own ancestor happy by his arrival, he decided to seize the moment.
“Hello.” Arcturus grinned lopsidedly. “You haven’t aged a day, Baron. Exactly how I remember you from your portrait back home.” He teased.
Baron chuckled, uncharacteristically. “And that is on death my boy.”
Arcturus’ eyebrows raised in surprise. He did his best not to give in to his urge to laugh but failed miserably when his chortle filled the quiet common room. Baron didn’t mind of course, he seemed far too happy and proud to take offense. His hands were clasped behind him and he chuckled once more, glancing at the portraits of other wizards and gesturing at Arcturus proudly.
“Let me explain the rules to you while leading you to your dormitory,” Baron beamed. “I have been telling my fellows about you, it’s been twelve years since my last descendant was here.” His smile stretched across his face, a hand holding the lapel of his bloody robe and his chin held high.
“Twelve years?” Arcturus’ eyes narrowed, seemingly calculating the dates in his head. “You mean my uncle Regulus?”
“Yes, my dear boy.”
Bloody Baron excitedly introduced him to almost every portrait on their way. ‘Look it’s my descendant, he looks just like the Black men, doesn’t he?’ Arcturus’ ears turned a deep shade of pink, his lips pressed together and a thin-lipped polite smile stretched across his face. To be praised like this even if it was only by a ghost made him feel jubilant. The old man explained the rules of the common room and send him off to his room.
When he entered the room that was assigned for him, there were three boys inside already.
“Look, that’s him,” Draco beamed, pointing at Arcturus as though he was pointing at his favorite broomstick. “That’s Artie, my cousin Arcturus.”
The other two boys looked at Arcturus, the one with curly brown hair had a curious look on his face, although his curiosity didn’t stop him from going back to unpacking his trunk and completely ignoring Arcturus.
“Nice to finally meet you Black,” The other boy said as he strode towards Arcturus and reached for his hand to shake. “I’m Blaise Zabini.”
Arcturus shook his hand and nodded, a smile forming on his lips. “Pleasure.”
He remembered Blaise of course, he’d seen him in a few funerals of pureblood men who were apparently related to Blaise’s mother, they never spoke before today but Arcturus remembered how well-mannered the lad used to be.
The other one looked less friendly; Arcturus didn’t mind it of course. But the moment he raised his head to look in Arcturus’ direction, it did bother him to feel as though the boy was looking down on him.
Draco nodded in the boy’s direction and smiled broadly. “That’s Theo. Theodore Nott. You remember the Notts, right?”
Arcturus remembered who the Notts were. They were famous for supporting the dark lord from ages ago. He looked the boy up and down. Theodore was noticeably taller than Draco and slightly taller than Arcturus himself. He decided not to greet the smug looking boy because to him it seemed as though Theodore was expecting Arcturus to talk first and Arcturus would never do that. Not when it was probably a nasty pure blood supremacist, someone like his own father Sirius Black.
“No, never heard of them before.” Arcturus responded, his chin high and his eyes returning Nott’s mean look.
The boy leered at him. “Didn’t expect bastards to know much about the respectable people in the community either.”
The colour from Arcturus’ face drained. If it wasn’t for his hunger and lack of sleep, he’d definitely come up with something witty to say and let it slide but this had hit him right where it hurt in the wrong time. The strange crawling sensation under his skin was back again, the same sensation he felt during the sorting ceremony. He lunged forward and landed a jab against Nott. With blood sprouting from his nose the boy stumbled backwards. The sudden attack happened so quickly it took everyone by surprise, even Arcturus himself felt as though his feet were nailed to the floor from shock.
Zabini immediately stood between the two boys and held back Nott who was yelling and trying to get his chance to land a punch on Arcturus as well.
Draco on the other hand didn’t look fazed but was still doing the bare minimum when it came to holding Arcturus back. If anything, this amused him to a certain amount, seeing Arcturus getting himself in trouble within minutes of his arrival to the dormitory.
When Arcturus came back to his senses within a few moments, the weight of his action and the gravity of the situation finally dawned on him. He yanked his arm away from Draco whose cunning grin of amusement got under Arcturus’ skin but he decided to ignore it when something more annoying caught his eyes. The room had four beds and near his bed was his damaged old maroon trunk, looking as though he’d taken it out from the rubbish people throw out. Arcturus kicked his trunk under the bed to get it out of sight and fell onto his bed, drawing the curtains around his four-poster. Once again, the crawling under his skin had stopped, now his arms were only tingling but that was just his nerves as Narcissa used to tell him. He didn’t know what took over him when he punched the boy but, in that moment, he felt entitled to it. It was as though his body acted on its own.
September 2nd 1:20 AM
“So, how did you escape?” Draco whispered, reaching to grab a sherbet lemon Arcturus had put on Draco’s bed.
“Dobby helped of course,” Arcturus hugged his knees in his chest. “Don’t tell your father. Although I’m sure he already knows and has punished Dobby enough for it.”
Both boys were sitting across each other on Draco’s bed, the dark green velvet curtains drawn around his bed. Every few minutes one of them yawned but both were too stubborn to go to sleep and neither of them brought up what happened earlier.
Draco grinned. “I was worried about you.”
“Shut up, you weren’t.” Arcturus scoffed, accidentally swallowing the sweet and reaching for the last one left on the napkin.
Draco frowned. “I was,” his voice nothing above a whisper. “I thought my father really was going to take you back home today so I made sure to stall him in the Quality Quidditch Supplies. Bought ten pairs of knee-pads.”
Arcturus chortled, a soft grin stretched across his face. “I lived to see another day and you have enough knee-pads to last you until our graduation. Brilliant.”
Draco wiggled his eyebrows, smiling broadly. It put Arcturus’ mind at ease knowing Draco wasn’t in on whatever Lucius was planning to do with him. He’d rather believe Draco than let his doubts ruin anything between them, after all, Arcturus had no one else in his life besides Draco.
“You got a pair of trousers?” Arcturus asked abruptly, now getting ready to leave Draco’s bed. “I didn’t pack any.”
Draco nodded, bending over the edge of his bed to open his trunk and brought out a pyjama set in the colour of deep midnight blue. It belonged to Arcturus. Surely Narcissa put it in Draco’s trunk, Arcturus had no doubt about it.
“Cheers.” Arcturus said, leaving Draco’s bed to change into his pyjama.
“Artie?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad we’re roommates. I had a feeling we’d be.”
Arcturus grinned, his eyes glinting with the same mischief Draco’s grey eyes exhibited in the darkness of the room.
That night Arcturus went to bed tying his wrist to the bed frame with Goyle’s belt, this way he was sure Lucius Malfoy wouldn’t show up in the middle of the night to take him away.
Perhaps he was too tired or his hunger and exhaustion took over because he had a very strange dream. He saw a young man in black robe and wavy black hair writing a letter with bleeding knuckles and scars on his left arm.
The hand writing was rushed and the ugliest he’d ever seen. It was almost unreadable. The young man’s lungs made the nastiest noises as his chest rose and fell. The candle light shaken by the gust of wind made it harder to read the letter the young man was writing.
To the dark lord,
Tonight I shall bring you the heads of your enemies
But do remember in politics, what begins in fear ends in folly.
The young man gave a horrible cough before he could sign his letter. Blood splashed all over the letter from his mouth and onto the young man’s hand which could no longer hold the quill. His head dropped onto the desk with a loud thud, his candle finally lost the battle to the cold wind and darkness filled the room that reeked of dark magic.
(Song:The Unforgiven – Metallica)