Chapter 5
It was a month after the start of term that Melanthios walked into the common room to find almost all of the first years crowded around the notice board. Everyone was talking excitedly.
“What’s going on?” He asked Theo, who was near the back of the group.
“Flying lessons. It’s an optional class for first years” he said before going over to read by the fire.
Melanthios stared after him and shrugged. Theo was weird. He couldn’t get a read on him. But he liked to think they were friendly.
“There you are Tesoro!” Blaise called as he and Draco came over “I was looking everywhere for you!”
“Sorry I was in the library” Melanthios smiled “Chrys and I were doing some research-“
“Never mind all that,” Draco interrupted, “you need to sign up for flying lessons with me!”
Melanthios hummed “I thought you already knew how to fly? Didn’t you say your father bought you a new broom before term?”
Draco’s cheeks tinged pink “yes well I heard that the quidditch team sometimes comes to find prospective players for next year” he huffed.
Blaise smirked as he stage whispered to Melanthios “he just doesn’t want to be the only Slytherin boy to go. Theo would rather spend his time reading and Crabbe and Goyle don’t want to give up their Saturdays”
Melanthios sighed as he walked over to the board and signed his name. “There you go Draco. Now you aren’t alone”
Draco grinned and looked at Blaise. “Go on. Sign up. You know you want to”
With a grumble Blaise also signed up. “You owe me” he said as he went upstairs. Leaving a confused Melanthios and a laughing Draco behind.
***
Flying lessons were held on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest. It looked like almost every first year had signed up for the class. The three Slytherins made their way over to where Chrysanthos was waving to them.
“Are you guys excited to fly?” He asked after they greeted each other.
Melanthios and Draco nodded while Blaise shrugged. At Chrysanthos’ questioning look he sighed. “I’m only here to make sure your brother doesn’t break his neck” he grumbled
Chrysanthos nodded. Neither he nor his twin had been on a broom before. Melanthios had been raised by muggles and before the blocks were removed he was clumsy and uncoordinated so gran refused to let him near one.
As the group chatted Madam Hooch walked onto the field and blew her whistle to get everyone’s attention. She had short gray hair and yellow eyes that watched them all like a hawk. She handed them all a broom and showed them how to mount it without sliding off the ends.
“Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard,” said Madam Hooch. “Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly”
As soon as she blew it Granger pushed off. She had done loads of reading about flying and planned to get top marks for the class. Flying couldn’t be that hard. At first it was fine until she tried to land and realized her broom kept floating higher and higher instead.
At her panicked shout, everyone looked up. She was already 30ft in the air and still going higher.
“Come back down here!” Madam Hooch yelled as she watched the girl drift higher.
Melanthios watched her face turn white with fear as she looked down. “She’s gonna fall” he said drily as he saw her gasp.
Chrysanthos groaned before pushing forward and kneeling down. Closing his eyes he buried his hands in the ground and focused his magic on the plants around them.
“Think she’ll die?” Draco snarked as she slipped sideways off the broom.
Blaise nodded “from that high up? Oh for sure”
Chrysanthos’ eyes shot open and a wave of magic pulsed through the ground. Suddenly multiple vines from the nearby pumpkin patch shot up and wrapped themselves around Granger. Everyone watched in awe as the vines slowly lowered her the last 5 ft and gently placed her on the ground.
As they were receding back to the patch they briefly stopped to caress Chrysanthos’ cheek. “Thank you” he whispered, standing up and dusting himself off.
Madam Hooch rushed over to Granger, looking her over. While she wasn’t hurt it seemed that she was in a state of shock.
“Come on, girl —— it’s alright. Up you get” Madam Hooch helped her up before turning to the rest of the students “I’m taking Miss Granger to the hospital wing for a calming drought so class is dismissed.”
As soon as they had walked out of earshot, Weasley rounded on Chrysanthos. “What was that?!” he demanded.
Chrysanthos shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean” he quickly looked at his brother who nodded.
“Don’t lie Longbottom! We all saw you!” Weasley scowled
“His name is Chrysanthos Khthonios!” Melanthios snapped. He was getting tired of Weasel disrespecting them.
“And he doesn’t have to answer to the likes of you” Draco sneered as he led them back towards the castle.
“Yeah, leave him alone Weasley” groaned Blaise as he grabbed Melanthios’ hand, pulling him along.
Draco led them to an abandoned classroom in the dungeons and locked the door.
“Ok what the hell was that?” He asked, throwing his hands up. “I knew you were good with plants but seriously?”
The Hufflepuff blushed “I honestly don’t know. Everyone was just watching her fall. I had to help”
“She would have been fine. Madam Hooch had her wand out before the vines grabbed her” Blaise told him
“How did you do it though?” Melanthios asked. Draco was right this was totally different from being good with the plants in Herbology.
Chrysanthos smiled, “I remembered mother telling me that if I asked they would always help me so that’s what I did” he said softly
“It could be another thing to add to the list,” Melanthios muttered. “I doubt many immortals have control over plants”
Draco narrowed his eyes as he looked between the brothers. “Ok what’s going on?” He asked “I understand that you two have your secrets and that’s fine but I think I deserve to know some things“ he nodded over at Blaise, leaning against the door “at least as much as him”
Blaise smirked and winked at him. The twins had a silent conversation before nodding in agreement. Draco was right. He was their friend and it wasn’t fair that Blaise knew while he didn’t. They could trust him with their secret. He hadn’t even made a big deal about their names after he found out their previous identities. So they quickly told him about the bindings and their suspicions on Dumbledore.
“Well my father always said the old coot wasn’t to be trusted,” he sniffed after they finished explaining everything.
They all broke into laughter before leaving the room and heading to the great hall for lunch.
***
Melanthios had never believed he would meet a boy he disliked more than Dudley, but that was before he met Ron Weasley. Ever since their flying lesson, Weasley was constantly harassing Chrysanthos about what happened.
While his brother was able to ignore him, Melanthios could not. Everyone could tell it would only take one wrong move before Weasley pushed Melanthios to his limit. Which is exactly what happened two weeks later.
The twins were in the library doing some more research when Weasley came in with two other Gryffindors. Seeing them at a table he immediately made his way to them.
“Well, well what do we have here?” He snarked, leaning on the table.
“Go away Weasel, we don’t have time for you” Melanthios muttered, not even looking up from his book.
Ron smirked “Oh yeah? Not so tough without your monster buddies are you?”
Chrysanthos sighed as his brother chuckled lowly. Closing his book, Melanthios slowly looked up at Weasley. His grin was down right evil as he said “didn’t I warn you what would happen if you insulted my friends again?”
“I’d take you on anytime!” Ron snapped “Tonight if you want. Wizards duel. Wands only”
Melanthios looked over at his twin who shook his head. He hadn’t heard of it either. But honestly it didn’t matter. Weasley was a gnat that needed to be squashed.
He turned back to Ron and nodded. “Alright. Wizards duel it is”
“Perfect” Ron smirked “we’ll meet you at midnight in the trophy room”
When Ron had left Chrysanthos looked at him and frowned. “Why did you do that? I thought we agreed to just ignore him. You don’t even know what a wizard's duel is”
He shrugged, “I never agreed to that,” he said as he started stacking up his books to put away. “Plus it’s his fault. I gave him a warning and he chose to ignore it. So now he has to pay the price. Simple as that”
With a heavy sigh Chrysanthos started packing up too. It was pointless to try to talk his brother out of this. Hopefully Blaise or Draco would know what a wizard duel entailed.
***
“You did WHAT?!?” Blaise shouted at his best friend in horror as he paced the room.
The four of them were currently in the same abandoned classroom as before. Chrysanthos was sitting on top of the teacher’s desk feeding Ligeia while Draco leaned against it.
Melanthios crossed his arms and glared at his brother. “Why did you tell them?”
“Because neither of us have any idea what a wizard's duel entails” he said unapologetically.
“Why would you agree to something without knowing what it was?” Draco asked in astonishment
“Because this is the perfect chance to finally shut him up” Melanthios groaned “Plus it seems pretty self explanatory. A wizard’s duel is obviously a duel” he shrugged.
“A duel that people DIE in! What do you think a second is there for?!” Blaise yelled
“Calm down idiot, no one is gonna die. I doubt Weasley will be able to shoot out more than a few sparks, if that” Draco drawled.
“Exactly” Chrysanthos nodded, “and I’m sure you and Draco can teach Melanthios some useful hexes he can use”
Blaise just stood there silently and shook his head. “This isn’t a joke” he muttered before walking out.
“I don’t see what the big deal is” he muttered to Kalli with a frown as Blaise walked out the room.
“He is worried for you master” she stated as she slithered onto the desk he stood from so she could face him “you should speak with him”
He sighed and turned back to the other two with a shrug. He’d try and talk to Blaise later tonight. “Ok so how exactly do I win a wizard's duel?”
The next hour was spent with Draco explaining the basics of the duel and going over some basic spells they could use. After he had taught them as much as he knew they headed back to their dorms. When he got up to his room Blaise wasn’t there so he laid down and soon dozed off.
He woke up a few hours later and looked at the clock “half-past eleven, perfect timing” he muttered as he got up.
“Stay here Kalli, I’ll be back later” he whispered as he grabbed his wand and put on his shoes. He was just about to reach the door when the lamp turned on.
“So you’re really going to do this?” Blaise asked, sitting up.
Melanthios sighed and turned around. “I’m going tonight with or without your approval”
“Is it really that important?!” Blaise asked getting out of bed.
“Yes! Why can’t you understand that?” Melanthios groaned. He didn’t understand why he was so against him going. He was basically doing this for him. He should be happy.
“Do you not understand that you could die?!?” Blaise snapped. “Why are you being so stubborn?!”
“Why are YOU being so dramatic?” he huffed “I’ll be fine. Go back to bed”
With that, Melanthios left the room. But Blaise wasn’t going to give up that easily. Grabbing his own wand, he followed after him. “Fine! If you refuse to see reason I guess I’ll just have to go with you” he grumbled as they exited the common room.
They had just made it to the end of the corridor when they heard a noise in the distance. It sounded like footsteps coming towards them. Pressing themselves against the wall, Melanthios took Blaise’s hand and was about to try and shadow walk them to the meeting point when Theo turned the corner.
He stopped and stared at them in surprise. “What are you two doing out of the dorms this late?” He asked
“We could ask you the same thing” Blaise replied, eyeing him suspiciously.
“My business is my own” Theo sniffed, crossing his arms as he stared at them
“Well so is ours!” Blaise remarked “Just go back to the dorms and act like you never saw us”
“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you BOTH go back to the dorms and leave me alone” Melanthios groaned
“I’m not leaving you!” Blaise growled, glaring at his friend.
Melanthios shushed him and looked around. The last thing he needed was to be caught out of bed after curfew by Flitch or Mrs Norris. “Fine. Just keep quiet. If I’m caught because of you, I’ll make you my test subject for every hex I learn” he hissed as he headed towards the stairs.
Chrysanthos met up with them by the second floor bathrooms. He had honestly expected Blaise but was surprised to see Theo. He looked curiously at his brother but Melanthios just shrugged and shook his head. He had no idea why Theo had followed them. The four of them continued up to the third floor and quickly tipped towards the trophy room.
When they entered, Weasley and his lackeys weren’t there yet. Melanthios made sure to keep his eyes on the door in case they tried an ambush attack. Theo edged along the wall looking at the many crystal trophy cases. Chrysanthos and Blaise stood to the side talking quietly.
“I still don’t understand why he’s going through with this,” Blaise muttered as he watched his friend twirl his wand.
Chrysanthos chuckled softly “isn’t it obvious?”
Blaise shook his head. “Not really”
“It’s for you, at least partially” he smiled “Weasley confronted us in the library and when he called you a monster that was the final straw for him”
Blaise frowned “but it’s not that serious. Especially not enough to do this”
“No, maybe not” he agreed “But he’s extremely loyal to those he cares about and you’re pretty high up on that list” he said with a smirk. He glanced at his brother before looking back at Blaise, “he said that he had warned Weasley not to do it again?”
Blaise nodded as he remembered the encounter during their first week of school.
“Then it makes sense. Weasley disregarded his warning” Chrys shrugged “You see, while my brother is fair he’s also vindictive”.
The minutes slowly crept by as they waited. It was already past midnight but there was no sign of Weasley.
“He’s late. He better not have chickened out”. Melanthios grumbled
There was a noise down the hall and they all froze. Melanthios slowly made his way over to the door and peeked outside. He looked back at them horror stricken “it’s Mrs Norris”
“Shit that means Filch isn’t far behind” Blaise whispered “we gotta get out of here!”
Cracking the door back open, Melanthios looked down the hall. It was currently clear so he frantically waved for the three to follow him as quickly as possible. They scurried down the hall, turning the corner just as they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
“This way!” He mouthed as they turned down another hallway. They could hear Filch behind them.
“Students out of bed! Detentions for all of you once I get my hands on ya!” Filch yelled as he was closing in.
“Shit! Run for it!” Melanthios yelled. The four started sprinting as fast as they could. They ran down one corridor then another, without any idea where they were going. Running through a hidden passage, they ended up near the Charms room.
“I think we lost him” Chrysanthos gasped as he wiped his forehead.
“We’ve got to get back to the dungeons quickly,” Melanthios looked at his twin. “You can shadow from there”
“Weasley tricked you. He was never gonna show. He must have tipped off Filch too” Blaise panted, leaning against the wall.
“Let’s go,” Theo grunted, taking the lead.
They had made it to the end of the corridor and were waiting for the staircase to come back over when they heard footsteps approaching.
“This is it. This is the end” Blaise sighed in defeat as he slumped against the wall.
“This is what I get for wandering around at midnight with idiots,” Theo groaned, shaking his head.
“Maybe I could shadow walk everyone back to the dorms… but I’ve never taken anyone but Kalli-“ Melanthios muttered to himself.
Chrysanthos was looking around frantically when he realized the wall behind Blaise seemed to shimmer. Looking closer he realized it was actually a door that was charmed to look like part of the wall.
Once he told the others they tried to get it open. It was locked so Theo quickly pulled out his wand and whispered, “Alohomora!”
The door swung open and they crowded inside. Closing it quickly, they held their breath as they listened to Filch walk right past. He must not be able to see the door once it was shut.
“Ok I think we are safe. I don’t hear him anymore” Melanthios sighed in relief
“I wonder why this door was locked if it was already hidden” Blaise muttered
“Obviously because we shouldn’t be here” Theo deadpanned.
“Well yeah but why-“ Blaise was cut off as they heard a low growl behind them.
Turning around, the four of them understood exactly why the door was both hidden AND locked.
They were staring at a humongous three headed dog. As it stood, it filled up the whole space between the ceiling and the floor. Its three noses twitched in their direction, drool dripping from yellowish fangs as the growls grew louder.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckkk-“ Blaise quickly backed up towards the door, groping for the knob. If he had to choose between Filch and death, he’d pick Filch. When he finally got the door open, he and Theo spilled out into the hall.
The twins however hadn’t moved. They both stood staring at the dog as if in a trance. It was standing quite still, all six eyes watching the two of them curiously. Its growls stopped as it laid back down.
“Come on!” Theo yelled as Blaise reached back into the room and grabbed the twins. Pulling them out he slammed the door shut. They ran down the stairs and straight to the dungeons without stopping.
Once inside the common room they collapsed onto the sofas to catch their breath. It was a while before anyone spoke.
“ What do they think they’re doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?!” Blaise demanded.
Theo glared at him. “You don’t use your eyes do you? Didn’t you see what it was standing on?!”
“Sorry I was a bit busy looking at its heads. If you didn’t notice there were three!” Blaise snarked
“It was obviously guarding something!” Theo snapped. “It was standing on a trap door!”
“I wonder if he gets let out for exercise.” Chrysanthos muttered absently.
Theo rolled his eyes as he stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed before you get any more dumb ideas”
Blaise stared after him. “You’d think we forced him to come with us,” he said as he stood up. “I’m gonna shower and head to bed” he said as he waved goodnight to the two boys and headed to their room.
“Ok. Tell Kalli I’ll be up soon” Melanthios told him before turning to his brother. “You remembered him too, right?” He asked anxiously.
Chrysanthos nodded “he looked like father’s familiar”
“Yes! I think he recognized us at the end there”
“I don’t know,” Chrysanthos frowned. “You really think it’s him? They might just be the same breed”
Melanthios pouted. While that made sense, he could have sworn he heard him whine as they left. But why would their father’s familiar be guarding something in a hidden room at Hogwarts? “You’re probably right,” he sighed.
Chrysanthos hugged his brother, “It’s still a big clue though. There can’t be that many immortals that had a three headed dog for a pet.”
He nodded as he hugged him back. “You're right. We’ll look up the breed tomorrow” he smiled at his twin “now get to bed, I know you’re tired.”
Chrysanthos nodded and stood up with a yawn. As he waved goodnight the shadows began to surround him and he disappeared from the room.
Laying in bed, Melanthios went over the night’s adventures. While things hadn’t gone as planned it was still rather productive. He just needed to think of a new way to punish Weasley. As he fell asleep to the sound of Blaise’s soft snores he dreamed of feeding Weasley to the 3 headed dog.
***
Melanthios ended up getting his revenge on Weasley that Friday while waiting for professor Quirrell to let them into class.
“Wow Weasley I can’t believe you would show your face after not showing up to a duel YOU requested” he sneered.
Everyone started muttering while looking at Weasley in distaste. While forfeiting from a duel was frowned upon, to not show up at all was completely disgraceful. It basically called you a coward. This was especially so if you were the person who requested the duel.
“For someone who constantly accuses me of bringing shame on my supposed family, I can’t say I’m completely shocked” he looked at him in disgust “especially when they come from a family of blood traitors.”
There were gasps all around and Weasley’s face turned red in embarrassment. Melanthios smirked as he walked closer to the other boy, causing him to back up against the wall. Standing in front of him he placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in.
“Enjoy your time in the hospital wing,” he whispered so that only Ron would hear “next time I won’t be so nice”. Squeezing his shoulder tightly, he hissed a soft “now” and Kalli quickly shot out from his sleeve and bit Ron before pulling back inside.
At the bite the Gryffindor shoved him away and Melanthios let out a low chuckle, raising his hands in the air. “Hey now, I’m sure they’d still be just as proud of you” he said loudly, turning to go to his seat as Quirrell opened the door to let them in.
“What did you do?” Blaise and Draco asked simultaneously as they began taking out their books and notes. Melanthios grinned deviously as he told them how Hydros venom causes the victim to swell up quite considerably.
“So the only cure is to apply a crap ton of ox dung to the bite?” Draco asked with a grossed out look while Blaise fake barfed.
Melanthios nodded, “Exactly and there’s no way they can trace it back to me since technically Kalli is listed as a non venomous sunbeam snake.” He smirked as Kalli shifted back into her base form of black with iridescent scales.
The boys chuckled as they spied Weasley rubbing at the bite. By the end of class he’d be the size of a balloon. Hopefully he would learn his lesson after having to smell like dung for a week.
***
The next few weeks were hectic. The twins spent most of their free time in the library. They had been able to find out that the breed of dog was a Cerberus. With that they had been able to narrow their search to Greek and Roman immortals.
Meanwhile, Blaise was trying to figure out what the dog could be guarding. While Theo hadn’t shown the slightest bit of interest and refused to talk to him, Draco was more than happy to help.
“Obviously it’s something Dumbledore thinks is more important than the students’ safety” he told them as they all sat at a table in a corner of the library. “Where did you say the dog comes from?”
“All our books say that the Cerberus is from Greece or Rome” Chrysanthos told them as he closed his book.
“How did he get it all the way here though? And why didn’t he warn us” Melanthios wondered.
Draco looked at him in disbelief. “He did. At the start of term. Don’t you remember?” At Melanthios’ blank stare he sighed, “the third floor corridor on the right side is out of bounds”
“—if you do not wish to die a most terrible death…” Blaise quoted in an impression of the headmaster.
“Ok but HOW did it get here?” Chrysanthos groaned. “Who would give Dumbledore a Cerberus?”
“Hagrid”
The four boys were surprised to see Hermione Granger standing there. While she wore a brave face it was easy to see that she was anxious and uncomfortable.
They all stared at each other in silence before Melanthios finally spoke. “The grounds keeper? Really?” He asked in disbelief.
She nodded “He has a soft spot for creatures”
“How do you know?” Blaise frowned
She blushed as she looked at him. “He’s nice. Sometimes we have tea and he told me”
Draco narrowed his eyes. “Why should we trust you? Aren’t you friends with Weasel?”
She shook her head. “No, not really. He’s kind of a bully. I don’t really like him but- he’s a family friend”
“Ok but why are you helping us? We aren’t exactly friends?” Chrysanthos asked
She shrugged, “Because you saved me while everyone else just watched”
Now that she mentioned it, ever since the flying lesson she hadn’t been much of a problem. While she was still slightly annoying in class she had started using their correct names. It was really just Weasley at this point.
“Ok, thanks,” Melanthios nodded. He expected her to leave but instead she sat down next to Draco.
“Ummm what are you doing?” Draco asked with a bewildered expression
“I thought I just explained that? I want to help” she said as though it were obvious “why are you trying to find out about the Cerberus?”
The boys eyed each other, unsure if she could be trusted. They still sometimes saw her whispering with Weasley in the corridors. So they were surprised when Blaise sent her a flirtatious grin and reached across the table to take her hand in his.
“Mon petite, what can you tell us about the Cerberus?” He asked sweetly as he stared into her eyes.
Hermione blushed. “His name is Fluffy. Hagrid got him earlier this year from a Greek guy he met at a pub”
He hummed softly, “do you know why he would give him to the headmaster?”
She frowned and shook her head. “Just that he’s guarding something that has to do with Nicholas Flamel”
He smiled charmingly. “That's ok” he kissed the back of her hand “thank you for your help, Cherie”
Sitting back, he broke eye contact and turned to look at Melanthios. Who was glaring at him rather fiercely. “What the fuck was that?!” he growled
Blaise tilted his head “whatever do you mean Tesero? I just asked her some questions” he said innocently
Melanthios turned his glare to Draco and Chrysanthos who were snickering quietly across from him. “What?” he demanded.
“Nothing. You’re just cute” his brother smirked
Draco rolled his eyes. “While entertaining, it was rather dumb Blaise. She could report you”
“That was highly unnecessary” Hermione complained as her blush finally faded “I would have just told you if you asked”
Blaise shrugged “I don’t really trust you. Sorry not sorry.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I won’t report you. Just please don’t do it again. I feel a bit lightheaded”
“I didn’t even take that much,” Blaise grumbled.
Melanthios punched his arm “you shouldn’t have taken any!” He hissed
“Ow! Ok sorry! I won’t ever kiss her again” Blaise pouted, rubbing his arm.
“Or use any kind of inducement” she prompted. At his nod she smiled. “Ok I’ll try to find out more about what Fluffy is guarding and who Flamel is.” She said standing up.
As she walked out of the library the boys stared at each other in disbelief. The last person they expected to offer help was Granger.