Chapter 5
For the rest of the night Solis couldn’t sleep and instead distracted himself with textbooks and going over his homework. By the time Draco came pounding on the room's door Solis was already dressed, sans his tie and robe, and had fully memorized his spells and potions textbooks and was working his way through his transfiguration one. His housemates notice his foul mood and don’t bother correcting his outfit; Solis isn’t in a talkative mood so instead of asking for help with his tie he used it to hold the front parts of his hair back out of his face.
Forgoing breakfast, Solis left the group of Slytherins that were heading to the Great Hall and made his way to his first class of the day, Charms.
Outside the classroom door sits a girl with brunette hair in Hufflepuff robes, her nose in a book about magical creatures. Solis sits on the floor, leaning against the wall across from the girl and closes his eyes to relieve his heavy eyelids. Few minutes pass in relative silence, with the occasional faint chatter from students heading to breakfast, before the girl looks up from her book at Solis.
She shyly greets him. “Hello.”
The black-haired boy slowly opens his eyes to meet her hesitant gaze. “Hi.”
“I-I‘m Tamsin. Tamsin Applebee.”
“I’m Solis.”
Tamsin pauses before speaking again, averting her eyes back to her book. “I know, people are talking about you almost as much as Harry Potter. They’re calling you the ‘Secret Heir’; because… well, no one knew you existed.”
Solis hums. He heard the name being whispered around the older years but didn’t pay much attention to it, not caring about the rumors or gossip going around about him since no one was saying it to his face. While living with the Dursleys Dudley started plenty of false rumors and gossip about Solis, but given Solis’ reputation with his little black notebook no one would confront him about them. So the ebony-haired boy has gotten used to people talking about him behind his back.
Not in the mood to hear what people are saying about him, Solis changes the subject. “Hey, Tamsin. What is the Hufflepuff dormitory like? Slytherins has a dark aesthetic to it, it kind of reminds me of a TV villain’s lair.”
Tamsin’s hazelnut eyes brighten and her lips pull into a smile. Book forgotten, she starts talking happily with her hands moving to accentuate and draw out her words. While waiting for Professor Flitwick and their classmates to arrive Solis listened to Tamsin describe the bright and cozy place the Hufflepuff dormitory is; the plants of different kinds planted and hanging around the common room and the wall that is filled floor-to-ceiling in books, the view her dorm window gives overlooking the schools lawn giving her the perfect view of the sun setting. Tamsin had just finished telling him about how since the kitchen is near the house, when you open the door you can smell the food that the house elves are cooking.
The sound of a throat clearing stops Solis from inquiring more and the two pre-teens turn to see the Charms professor standing in the hall, a small smile on the small man’s lips.
“Hello, early birds. Class should be starting soon.” Flitwick unlocks the door to his classroom and lets Solis and Tamsin in. The two pick seats at the front of the room, Tamsin choosing to sit in the back row with her back against the wall. Solis sits in the seat right in front of her so they can continue their conversation till the other first years arrive and class starts.
The time passes quickly. Professor Flitwick starts class by explaining a levitating charm and how to properly execute it before he has them try it. Hermione gave a smug smile when she managed it on her first try, though her smile lessened when Flitwick praised Solis for doing the charm without speaking the words. The praise is short-lived when Seamus makes his feather explode somehow.
Solis spent the last few minutes of class turned around on the bench talking animatedly with Tamsin about the book she was reading, The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice. During their discussion they found a shared interest in the horror and supernatural genres and the brunette offered to lend Solis some of her supernatural-romance books when he mentioned not being able to find a good romance story that piqued his interest. Their conversation got interrupted by class ending and Draco scoffing before saying, “Why waste your time reading about ridiculous things. They're nearly as boring as textbooks.”
The day continued on, news about Harry becoming Gryffindors seeker spread. Solis talked and congratulated him during lunch but spent most of the day talking with his new Hufflepuff friend and a few Slytherins Solis befriended during Care of Magical Creatures.
At dinner since it was Halloween jack-o-lanterns floated in the air and the spelled ceiling seemed to give off a spooky vibe, the feast also was decorated to celebrate the holiday. As the kids around him stuffed their mouths with meats, puddings, and pies, Solis was slowly consuming a turkey sandwich while testing out an enlarging spell on the candy apples plated in front of him.
The girl sitting across from Solis, who introduced herself as Pansy Parkinson, widened her eyes and gave a toothy grin before claiming one of the caramelized apples when Solis managed to get them to grow an inch or two bigger. The ebony-haired boy was about to take a bite of his own when the doors to the Great Hall burst open and Professor Quirrell came running in, shouting about a troll being loose in the school before he fainted. Panic ensued as the students started screaming and rushing to leave; Solis, not one to usually panic, stayed seated and gathered the enlarged candy apples and began to carefully wrap them in napkins and put them in his messenger bag.
“Silence!” Dumbledore shouted, stopping the chaos and drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Prefects will lead everyone calmly back to their houses and stay there. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons.”
House Perfects started calling for their house to follow them. On his way to the dungeons Solis caught sight of Harry and Ron rushing in the opposite direction, grabbing Malfoy by the elbow Solis passed his bag to the blonde.
“Put this in my room.” Solis says before going after the two Gryffindors without seeing the platinum blonde’s scared and confused expression.
Running after Harry and Ron, Solis hears screaming and glass breaking coming from the girls bathroom and hurries to see the commotion. He enters the bathroom in time to see Harry hanging by his foot by a huge, gray troll who is trying to hit him with a giant stick. Hermione is hiding under the non-destroyed sinks yelling at Ron to do something; Ron is standing in front of Solis frozen, shouting back at Hermione questioning what he should do.
Hermione and Solis yell the answer at the same time. Hermione responding to Ron, and Solis with his wand raised and pointed at the troll’s battering stick. “Wingardium Leviosa!”
The stick stays floating in the air right as the troll tries to swing it back down at Harry again. They all watch as the troll looks up at the stick confused before it drops on to his head, knocking him out and causing him to drop Harry and fall to the ground. The two brunettes stand and move to the two boys, Harry pulls his wand out the troll’s nose earning disgusted exclamations from all of them. He had just finished wiping his wand off and putting it away when a few professors came storming in; Professors McGonagall, Quirrell, and Snape.
After surveying the scene McGonagall spoke. “What is going on here?!”
The Gryffindor boys opened their mouths to speak but Hermione beat them to it. “It’s my fault. I read about trolls and thought I could handle one on my own, but I was wrong. Harry and Ron came after me and saved me.”
McGonagall looks them up and down, seeming to accept the answer. All of the Professor’s eyes turn to Solis, who was left out of the girl's explanation, and Snape addresses him.
“And why are you here, Black?”
“Reflex. I saw Harry running and, from experience, it is usually towards something dumb or dangerous. And I would like to point out,” Solis jerks his thumb towards the boy in glasses and deadpans. “If I hadn’t arrived, Sleeping Beauty over there would’ve smashed him like a bug.”
The three Gryffindors and McGonagall stare at him with wide eyes and open mouths. After a moment of silence Professor McGonagall scolded Hermione and took away 10 points for going after the troll and awarded the three boys 5 points each for ‘sheer dumb luck’ before sending them off to bed. Snape escorted them to make sure they didn’t get into any more trouble; though once they reached the spot where they go different ways he left the three on their own and continued to escort Solis to the Slytherin house. During the walk the Professor had the boy retell what happened and by the time they made it to the dormitory, Solis had been awarded 10 points for his quick thinking and execution for the charm.