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This is one on the three fics I will begin regularly updating come June, when I have my life to myself again. Based on feedback, of course.
For those who read ‘The Id’, it should be up, uh, sometime. Chapter ten did NOT want to be written, I had a lot of trouble with it. There is so much information to be stuffed into it, that I’m still not happy with it, but hopefully soon I’ll get over my perfectionism.
Disclaimer: I don’t own
Chapter One – Dishonesty
Flashback:
On the second floor of ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’, a room filled with expectant seventh year Gryfindors and Slytherins waited, some more patiently than others, for the man before them to acknowledge their presence. From what they could see of his bowed head, and lean physique, he was quite young, perhaps only shades older then themselves. His long, straight, dark hair trailed over the parchment that held his attention, leading most to the assumption that it ran most of his back’s length.
There were many startled jumps from the already anxious students when a large ebony bat swept into the room, and collected the letter from their new professor’s outstretched hand. Without warning, he began:
“Put away your textbooks and your wands.” He ordered, scanning the room with blood red eyes, and a demanding gaze.
“Huh?”
“I have no use for either in my lessons. My name is Professor Nyx. Your headmaster has asked me to train you in the art of defence this year. I expect your full attention and cooperation at all times if you expect to reach any improvement in your skills.”
“Without wands? How can-“
“Wands set unnecessary boundaries to your magic. Come, this is no place for what I wish to teach you.” Without waiting for a reaction, he smacked his hands together with unnatural thunder. Once his patrons overcame the shock, they blinked, and looked around.
“Whoa, that was -so- cool!”
“Where are we?”
“Ya just had to show off, didn’t ya dad?” One of two new girls drawled. She had gold-spun flaxen hair, shimmering black eyes, and had been sorted into Slytherin. Her black robes fitted her thin frame snugly, and trailed the lush grass at her feet.
“Feel free to quip my power when you yourself can match it, Megaera”.
“Oh come off it, you’re not old enough to be her father, you don’t even look old enough to be our teacher.”
“Looks deceive Draco,” The blond jerked slightly at the unfounded, yet confident knowledge of his name, “I am immortal,” he explained.
“Well it only took seven years, but they’ve finally given us a cool defence teacher.” The professor in question raked his memory for the boy’s name… Weasel, Wesley… Weasley! Ron Weasley. The fuzzy haired girl next to him, slapped his arm, and scowled.
“What about Lupin”
“Come off it ‘Mione, this dude’s immortal. You don’t get better than that.” Such a fickle creature.
“Hey! I am too you know!” Megaera huffed, and her sister chose that moment to make herself heard for the first time.
“Me too!” The girl looked about the same age as her sibling, and for that matter, her father, though her eyes showed youth and innocence that the other two lacked. Her eyes showed a slightly crimson tint over black. Her hair emulated Nyx’s.
“Megaera, Celaeno… Stop showing off, it’s not attractive.”
“We get it from father. You can’t fault us for our genes.”
The students were caught off guard to hear their well-spoken teacher mutter a phrase that sounded oddly like “bloody arrogant prick” before remembering their existence and re-sculpting his composure.
“Feel free to discuss this on your own time, for there is little to spare in this class - despite our location, which should not concern you for now. I suggest you all take a seat.”
The class settled, finding comfort on the rolling hills, and under the strangely enflamed sky.
“The ground beneath you is sacred. It will help you realise and utilise your true potential.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Draco…” he paused, trying to find the words. But words and coherent thought tended to leave him in Draco’s presence. Sometimes, this was a derivative of lust. More often, as was currently the case, it was the by-product of sheer irritation, and the urge to throttle the blonde. He gave up on a witty retort:
“…Shut the fuck up.” That earned him some gasps, he was almost certain that he wasn’t allowed to swear at the students; “You will listen to what I have to say, and you will do as you are told, because in one hundred years, no one ever dared refuse me, without incurring my irascible ire. Do I make myself clear?” All but two nodded, though the question was solely directed at the ‘youngest’ Malfoy.
“You’re such a spoiled brat Dad,” Megaera, who was obviously the more outspoken of the two, being older, turned to her peers. “I’m serious, you should have seen what he did to the last moron who didn’t give him his own way. Not pretty.”
“Eh-Hhem. Can I continue, or are you going to give a detailed list of all the worthless excuses for lives I’ve extinguished?” he mocked, furthering her attempt to terrorize the bewildered teens.
“By all means,” She said, laughing at the horrified faces of the Gryfindors, and the calculating expressions on her fellow Slytherins.
“I want you all to relax, and no, I’m not going to murder all of you as soon as you shut your eye’s. My daughter is trying to scare you.” Feeling it was best to nip the joke in the bud before someone passed out of consciousness.
“So you’re not a psychopath, come serial killer, then?” One queried timidly: A ‘brave’ Gryfindor.
“No, I am not, neither are my children. Ignore them. They are far too Slytherin for their own good.”
“So have you ever killed anyone?”
“I don’t believe that I intended this to be in my lesson plan. What’s more, the answer will not set your mind at ease.”
“So you have?”
“Yes.”
“Deatheaters?” Came the hopeful enquiry. The Slytherins snarled at the slander on the majority of their parents.
“My kind kill without prejudice. Never in this realm of course, It’s forbidden… We do not involve ourselves in the lives of insignificant mortals... I, however, have returned to your world to complete an oath, one I made when I was very young and foolish, before I was sired… And to make sure these two get formal qualifications, of course.”
“Yeah, like there’s a point, Dad.”
“Yeah, why the hell would we want qualifications? To work? Fuck off, we’re filthy rich. I’m not lifting a finger, EVER”
“Have I ever mentioned how infuriatingly like your father you two are?” He said, clawing at his scalp.
“Often.”
“Well just so we’re clear.”
“ They sound like Malfoy,” Weasley took it upon himself to state the obvious. Nyx rolled his eyes, and his daughter’s shuffled up either side of Draco. Resting their heads on his shoulders.
“Aw, we feel so privileged.” Draco didn’t know how to take such welcoming behaviour from the daughters of the man who had just threatened him, but the professor seemed used to their antics, and decided to elaborate.
“I’ve had to put up with that for twenty nine years.”
“You’re twenty nine?” he asked the girls at his sides.
“What? I said we were immortal.”
“Yeah, but don’t include me in the twenty nine part, I’m seventeen. You make me sound old, Megaera.”
“Sor-ry Celaeno, God, touchy much? I didn’t realise twenty-nine was old. Should I start wearing brown stockings, and putting my fangs in a jar at night”
“I’m hungry, see?” she groaned, pointing out her eyes. Draco saw that they had lost their reddish tint. It clicked. He looked up at his professor.
“Sir?”
“Now you’re making me sound old.”
“You are old.”
“Technically I haven’t aged a day past my sixteenth birthday, neither have any of my children. What was your question?”
“Uh…” how did he want to put this? “You three. Well, you’re Vampires, right?”
“Fifty points to Slytherin. I promise not to eat you.” He smirked, “But seriously, it’s illegal. I’m a good guy, honest, sort of…. I was in Gryfindor, if that helps?” His ex –house members appeared slightly relieved at this statement. They were safe.
“Now, can we get on with this?” Most nodded.
“Sir, Isn’t it time we were heading back? We have potions next and Snape’s not-“
“Professor Snape,” he corrected.
“Professor Snape’s not very forgiving of late comers.”
“Speak for yourself,” laughed an unknown Slytherin.
“Time moves differently here. An hour becomes days, a year becomes a hundred. This is an ancient place, beneath you lies the core of all magic. No wizard has ever been able to excavate it, or even see it, but all agree that it’s here.”
“Cool!”
“Uh, shouldn’t there be tourists or something?”
“Wizards and Men were banished from this place long ago. You are the first morals to breathe this air in five thousand years.”
“Why?”
“Because of this very site. Good men, powerful wizards, were driven to insanity trying to raise what hides in the depths of this soil. My sire cast out all but his people from this, his great kingdom.”
“Won’t you get in trouble for bringing us here?”
Their teacher laughed. “Kere knows of our presence. But you must stay here, never wander down into the city walls. You are not welcomed here by most, and some may forget the old laws in bloodlust. You are safe with me, stay with me. Do I make myself clear?” More nodding, Nyx began to think they’d bitten off their own tongues in trepidation.
“When you said it was forbidden to kill in this realm, does that mean you can kill in our world?”
“For the love of Hades, I am not going to kill you. You see what you two have started?” The sisters snickered, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Either you all shut up and stop asking me idiotic questions, or I’ll get pissed off. Do you really want to piss off a 116-year-old vampire? No? Good. Feel free to flee from my presence in your world, but here I can’t touch you. It’s a sin to pollute the homeland. Only disgusting lower life forms would consider it, and I am royalty.”
“Whoa!”
“Well I’m glad we’re on the venerating kick again. Now sit down and listen.”
“I cant hear anything.”
“That’s because I wasn’t talking yet you muppet. What, did you think I wanted you to hear profound truths in the wind? Fill your mind with all thought, all emotions, all the knowledge that you possess. Be honest with the powers, and they may see fit to reward you. What can you see?”
“What can you see?”
“Nothing, this is a load of nonsense. You’re beginning to remind me of Trelawney.”
“Don’t ever compare me to that incompetent troll.”
“Why not, it’s all the same bullshit. Seeing into the future, it’s not possible. If it were, we could have prevented so many things.” The hurt in Draco’s eyes told Nyx not to scold him.
“Very well,” he said pleasantly,” A five foot essay on the meaning of ‘bullshit’ by Friday, and I’ll let you off the hook.”
“That’s not fair.”
“The task I have given you is far easier to complete. You are the one who refuses to accept the truth.”
“What truth? Why do you know so much about me?”
“You know what truth. You don’t have to admit it to me, or tell me what you see, but be honest with yourself.” Draco lay back on the grass, closing his eyes in a pained expression. It seemed like millennia had passed before Nyx saw a single tear fall across his cheek, and heard a sharp intake of breath.
“That’s not possible.”
“Not if you continue to close off you heart, no.”
“No, professor, it’s not possible. Harry’s-”
“Dead? Yes. Come, we must get back.”
“How can you be so cold? So Bitter?”
“My sire bound my emotions to this, when the pain threatened to kill me.” He pulled a chain bearing a jagged red stone out from the collar of his robes. “In effect, it is my heart.”
“Pain?”
“Of being parted from the man I love.” He gave Draco a pointed look, but he didn’t pick up on the hint. “Will you tell me what you saw?”
“I, I saw a baby, my son, I saw- It’s not possible.“
“Draco. You are a very powerful wizard. But you will never realise your full potential unless you accept what you saw. It was not the past, or the present. It is the future. It will happen.”
He shook his head. “No, it won’t.”
Nyx pulled the pendant from around his neck. “I want you to have this. A reminder that some people are worse off.”
“No, no I cant. You said it yourself, its your heart.”
“I am dead Draco. I will never again need oxygen, as it drives you; I feel no hunger when I am starved of food. Pain to me, is a welcome release; and all emotions lie void within this precious stone. Tell me, what use is a heart if it cannot feel? Take it, it belongs to you, until the time comes for you to shed your falsehoods.”
“Thank you. I’ll take care of it, I swear.”
“I know you will. Now go.”
Draco looked around and realised that they were back in the classroom. He left before he heard his new teachers mutterings.
“Sometimes I swear that boy is more dense than Longbottom.”
AN:
Nyx
is the Greek Goddess of the Night. Yeah, I said goddess, so sue me. I
liked the name too much. Besides, he had kids, if that doesn’t make
him feminine, then god knows what does.
Megaera’s full name is Megaera Tisiphone Alecto &$£#$
Celaeno’s full name is Celaeno Ocypete Aello &$£#$
The &$£#$ is of course significant.
I’ll give cookies and spoilers to anyone who can tell me Nyx’s pet names for his daughters.
Hint No.1: Google both of them, they’re right there, first link!
Hint No.2: I have an obsession with Greek mythology (That’s more of an explanation for my weirdness)
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