Chapter 2
The next morning, Barty woke up at 8. Yesterday, the first years had been told that they would need to go get breakfast in the great hall between 7 and 9, where they would also be given their schedules. Evan woke up around the same time as him, but Regulus had woken earlier. He had already taken a shower and gotten dressed when they woke up, so they asked him to wait for them so they could all go up to the great hall together.
It only took about 15 minutes for them to get ready, which was a good thing since Regulus made it clear he would have left without them if they had taken any longer. “You guys are so slow,” he complained as they made their way up the stairs.
When they arrived in the great hall, Dorcas called them over. “How long have you been here?” asked Evan as they sat down. “Long, I didn’t want to miss you guys,” she answered. “Can’t get enough of us, can you?” said Barty. “Sadly, you guys are way more fun than anyone in my year. Not counting Dora, of course.”
“So, what I’m hearing is that we’re your new best friends,” he teased. “Well, I didn’t say that. You guys are more tolerable, that’s it.” Dorcas insisted. “No takebacks. The four of us are now best friends, and I guess Dora too,” said Evan. It made him happy; he had friends. “The four of us?” asked Regulus, “You want to be friends with me?” he added. “Of course, you seem really cool,” Evan said, smiling brightly. “Oh,” said Regulus, “I’ve never had friends before, unless you count my brother.” Dorcas gasped, “Poor baby, all these years with only that obnoxious ass as compagny.”
“He’s not that bad,” said Regulus. She gave him a doubtful look. “He’s nice sometimes.”
“But he’s always annoying, right?” Regulus nodded, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Poor me?”
“Poor you,” she confirmed. Dorcas seemed to really hate Regulus’ brother.
They were given their schedules as they ate. The classes all seemed rather boring. Their first class was transfiguration with Hufflepuff, then they had potions with Gryffindor, after lunch they had flying also with Gryffindor, and they finished the day with charms with Ravenclaw. “Yay, I’m starting the day with charms,” said Dorcas. “Do you also have charms with Ravenclaw?” Barty asked. “Yes, that’s why I’m happy about it. It’s one of the only classes I have with Pandora,” she answered.
“Where is Pandora?” Evan asked, “She usually wakes up early.” He looked to Dorcas for an answer. “She was here earlier but she left to go talk to her brother. I think they’re in the courtyard.”
“Oh, I should introduce you guys to my brother. He’s probably with them,” said Evan. He looked around. “Uh, which way is the courtyard?” Dorcas let out a small laugh, “Follow me, I’ll show you the way.”
“It’s pretty easy to get lost since the castle is so big. I know it’s tempting to go explore, but you should wait until you’ve at least memorized the way to all your classes so you know some landmarks to help locate where you are. And even then, I wouldn’t walk around alone until like February,” said Dorcas, as they walked. “You seem to be talking from experience,” said Barty.
She groaned, “I got lost for like 3 hours in October, I missed a class and a half. I got detention and had to scrub cauldrons by hand.” He laughed. “Won’t be as funny when you’ll be the one scrubbing cauldrons.”
“What makes you think I’ll get detention?” Barty asked. “You seem like the type,” Dorcas answered simply. “Anyways, here we are. I present you the courtyard,” she said dramatically.
The courtyard was large, there were multiple tables and benches. The centerpiece was a beautiful fountain in the middle. Plenty of students were there, socializing. He spotted Pandora sitting on a bench next to three older students. They walked over to her. “Hi guys, how are you doing? Is your dorm room okay? Are you guys sharing? Did you get your schedule yet?” she bombarded them with questions. “Dora, calm down. You’re not even letting them answer,” the boy sitting next to her said in a soft voice. He had slightly curly brown hair that reached past his shoulders and was wearing a slytherin uniform. Looking at his face more closely you could tell that this was definitely Pandora’s brother, their features were almost identical. The biggest difference was a beauty mark above his mouth and the fact that Pandora wore her features in pure happiness, while his were twisted in misery.
“Oh, sorry,” said Pandora, “I’m just excited.” Evan smiled, used to his cousin’s behaviour. “We're doing good, or at least I am, the dorm room is great, we are sharing, we got our schedule before we came here. This is Regulus he’s also our friend,” he answered at an impressive speed.
Pandora turned towards Regulus and extended her hand, “Nice to meet you, Regulus. I’m sure we’ll also become friends.” He smiled and shook her hand, “Nice to meet you too.”
She turned towards her brother, “This is my brother Rabastan, he’s a fourth year.” Rabastan gave them a small smile, “Nice to meet you,” he almost whispered. “That’s my brother Raphael,” said Evan pointing to one of the other boys. He had the same pale blond hair as Evan, but he didn’t have many freckles. “Hello,” said the older boy with a smile.
“And I’m Asterion, Asterion Malfoy,” the third boy said, as he grabbed and shook the hand of the person closest to him which happened to be Barty. He didn’t look like a Malfoy. Sure, he had the pale blond hair and the fair skin, but he also had pierced ears and a septum piercing. “You’ve probably not heard about me, I’m a bastard,” he added in the same tone people usually use to tell people they should know them. Raphael hit him in the arm. “Don’t introduce yourself like that.”
“What’s wrong with the way I introduce myself?” asked Asterion. Raphael just glared at him. “Don’t mind him he’s a moron failing half his classes,” he told them. The group kept talking, but Barty wasn’t really paying attention, he was focused on the piercings. His mother had told him piercings were for delinquents, but they were so cool.
“You need something?” asked Asterion. “What?”
“You're staring,” he clarified. “Oh, sorry. I just... Your piercings are really cool.”
Asterion smiled, “Thanks, I did them myself. Do you want some?”
“Asta stop trying to corrupt first years, you’ll get them in trouble,” Rabastan exclaimed. Raphael sighed, “What’s wrong with you? You’re out of control today.”
“What? I didn’t even say anything that bad,” said Asterion. “He’s 11! You need to stop talking to first years, next you’ll put bad ideas into my brother's head,” said Raphael. “Let’s get going, class is starting soon,” said Rabastan. He turned towards them, “It was nice meeting you all.” The other two also said something similar as Raphael followed behind Rabastan dragging Asterion away.
“Should we also go to class?” asked Regulus. “Yeah, probably,” answered Dorcas. “What do you have first? We’ll walk you there,” said Pandora. “Transfiguration,” said Evan.
Turns out the first class of transfiguration was basically nothing. Most first classes were basically nothing. It was just an explication of what the subject was and what they would be taught during their first year, super boring stuff. Their transfiguration professor, McGonagall, seemed strict and their potions professor, Slughorn, seemed boring. The worst class by far had been flying. You would think they would have been allowed to fly a little, or at least pick up a broom, but nooo. They had to listen to security measures and a bunch of boring rules.
Their last class of the day was charms. As he walked into the classroom, one of the students leaving bumped into him, spilling ink all over his shirt. The student didn’t even apologize, he just kept walking. “Asshole,” said Evan. “I can’t go to class like this,” Barty groaned, “How much time to we have left before the class starts?” Regulus cast a quick tempus, “11 minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back,” he said. “What, but Dorcas said we shouldn’t walk around alone,” said Regulus. “Don’t worry, I remember the way.”
“Are you sure you don’t want us to go with you?” Evan asked. “I’m sure,” he answered as he walked away.
Barty easily made his way to the slytherin common room. He went to his dorm, quickly changed his shirt, and made his way back to class. Except that when he took the last turn to get to the classroom, it wasn’t there. He walked around a bit, and he still couldn’t find it. Maybe, Dorcas had been right.
He walked around for like ten minutes before he ran into another student. Or really another student ran into him. He fell to the floor, really, twice in one day. “Sorry, I didn’t see you,” at least this student was apologizing. Barty looked up at the older student, he was a gryffindor and probably a third or second year. He looked familiar. “Shouldn’t you be in class?” He asked. “Shouldn’t you be in class?” Barty asked back.
He chuckled, “Fair enough,” he extended a hand towards him, “You’re not hurt, are you?” Barty grabbed the hand, “I’m fine.” He pulled him up.
“So, are you lost?” asked the griffindor. “How did you know?”
“Well, I also got lost on my first day,” the boy admitted, “but I had a buddy with me, so we didn’t stay lost forever.”
It finally hit him; that was the guy Dorcas kept complaining about. He’d seen him from across the great hall during the feast. “James, right?” The boy grinned “You’ve heard of me; I didn’t know I was this famous.” Barty now understood what Dorcas meant when she called him obnoxious. “I was told you were annoying, obnoxious, and an asshole to slytherins.” James’ smile disappeared, “Oh,” he cringed, “I didn’t know I came across that badly. Who told you that, if you don’t mind telling me?”
Barty debated it, didn’t he pull some kind of mean prank. On one hand, he probably just wanted to know to get revenge on whoever was talking badly about him. On the other hand, Barty felt like he could trust him, “If I tell you won't try and get revenge, right?” he decided to ask. “No, promise. I just want to know, so I know what I did wrong,” James answered, he seemed very genuine.
“Well, I can tell you what you did wrong, you poured glitter glue over the slytherin’s table. I heard multiple students warn the other first years about your friend group and your pranks against slytherins,” Barty told him. He decided not to tell him Dorcas’ name and instead went with the broader statement. It wasn’t a lie; he had heard multiple older students warn first years about the pranks.
James seemed pretty upset. “We, my friends and I... we didn’t just prank the slytherins. We pranked everybody... I guess our pranks on the slytherins were meaner thought,” he said. “You sound very upset by this,” said Barty. “Well yeah, I don’t want to be remembered as the slytherin bully. My mom was a slytherin, you know. This would upset her.”
“Huh,” said Barty. “What?” asked James. “You're actually not that bad. You’re just a mama’s boy with stupid pranks,” he said, “I’m Barty, it’s nice to meet you.” James’ smile came back a little. “I’m James, but you already knew that. Do you want me to walk you to your class?”
“Yes, that would be helpful. I’m not sure I’ll get there on my own. I have charms.” Barty answered, “Don’t you also have class, won’t you get in trouble?” James shook his head, “Na, Minnie is chill with me.” Barty raised a brow, “Who’s Minnie?”
“McGonagall,” James answered. “You call Professor McGonagall, Minnie.”
“Yes,” James said, clearly proud of himself.
“And she’s fine with it,” Barty said doubtfully.
“Well, I wouldn’t say she’s fine with it. But she can’t stop me.” Barty was starting to really like this guy. “I really doubt she’s the kind of person to be chill about her students being late to class,” said Barty. “Okay she’s not, but once she learns I was late because I was helping a lost first year, she won’t give me detention. Hopefully.” Barty laughed.
“Well anyways, here we are, the charms classroom. And you are only twenty minutes late,” James said, fully grinning again. “Thank you,” said Barty. “No problem, see you around Baby snake,” said James, waving as he walked away.
Barty decided that while James was kind of obnoxious, it was outwaited by his kindness. He might even have been as kind as Pandora in his own way.