The warming air of early March, mixed with the smell of boiling potions coming from the cauldrons, filled the dungeons.
"Rigel... not bad. It seems you were lucky enough not to inherit your mother's talent for Potions. She failed at brewing a potion of this level even during her sixth year." Snape's voice came from behind Rigel, who was currently filling a crystal vial with his freshly brewed concoction.
"Thanks, Sever...."
Snape's face morphed into a grimace that shut Rigel up before he could even finish. After a quick cough, Rigel amended, "As I was saying... thanks, Snape. But was Mom really that bad at Potions?"
Severus froze for a moment before stating in his usual ice-cold tone, "She was bad. Or average as she so much liked to say while denying her lack of aptitude for the subject, accusing me of being biased and blinded by capabilities . But yes... she was only as good as the dunderheads we currently have in the sixth-year of Gryffindor."
A small drop of sweat rolled down Rigel's forehead. A nervous gulp echoed through the room, followed by a whispered, "Damn... I got lucky."
Snape's lips morphed into an amused smile for a brief moment before returning to their usual thin line, only to be disrupted by another question from Rigel.
"Professor Snape, can you tell me more about her Hogwarts years? When she was alive, she hardly ever talked about her school days, unless it was to boast."
"She didn't change a bit, even after giving birth, it seems. I suppose it falls on me to explain the truth about your mother," Severus said, his head tilting from side to side as if in sheer exhaustion.
And so, Snape began recounting the reality of Rigel's mother's school years, continuing until it was time for lunch.
Later, with a small, private smile still lingering on his lips, Rigel sat down at his place at the Great Hall table. Isolated and derided by those around him, he kept eating, treating the hostility as nothing but background noise.
Once he finished his lunch, he disappeared into the halls in search of something to do on this fine weekend afternoon.
Step by step, he made his way through the various corridors, until he found himself face-to-face with Filch.
An old voice, which most students knew only as a harsh rasp, came out calm, almost cheerful. "Oh, Black. What a surprise. Good to see you," Filch said with the ghost of a smile.
"Filch, how are you doing? Need some help with some resistant filth?" Rigel's voice came with his usual deranged smile playing on his lips.
"Not at the moment. The products you gifted me are helping a lot more than I thought. Those Muggles... they certainly know a thing or two about cleaning," Argus answered.
Meanwhile, Rigel scooped Mrs. Norris up into his arms and calmly started petting her.
"Since I'm already here, Filch, can you tell me more about the old punishments for students who broke the rules?" Rigel asked, almost making eye contact with him, while petting the cat.
"Oh, no problem at all. It's always a pleasure to talk about the old times with an eager student," Filch said, a twisted sense of nostalgia in his voice, then he turned and began walking down the hall, with Rigel following closely behind.
Some time passed. Afternoon became evening, and an interesting question came from Argus's young companion.
"Tell me... if you were chained up, do you know of any way to get out without any help?" Rigel's voice was calm, almost neutral, as if a dead man had asked the question, and not an eleven-year-old boy.
Filch stopped for a moment, his face twisting into a thoughtful expression. Then, with an uncertain tone, he replied, "From what I can think of... maybe by breaking your own hand and slipping it out. But there could be other options based on how the chains are made. If they are rusty, like it happened in the past, you could cut your hand and use your blood as a type of oil to slip it out. But it's not that easy, and it wouldn't happen if the one who chained you knew what he was doing and wasn't a total failure like the one who let that student escape his punishment."
As he drew to a close, a heavy dose of disdain filled the custodian's voice.
Rigel's head tilted, his eyes widening slightly. "Damn, I didn't think about using my own blood. Anyway, I think it's time I go, unless I want to miss dinner."
With that, he lowered Mrs. Norris back to the ground, giving her one final scratch that earned him a happy purr, and said his goodbyes to Filch.
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Days passed between one lesson and another. Rigel kept a close eye on the progress of the Quidditch games, closely studying the various strategies of the houses and the individual players.
April started and ended in a blink, with gifts given and received. But the most surprising thing for him was being left once again to wait at Hogwarts due to some last-minute emergency.
And so, on the last night in April, while in a particularly bad humor, he walked down the corridor with Tenebris at his side.
It didn't take him long to finally reach his private training chamber and get some mannequins ready to become the targets of his fury. With wand in hand, the massacre began, all while he conversed with Ten.
A Diffindo Exitialis was thrown directly at the face of one of the mannequins, while another one was instantly blasted into flames.
Rigel spoke in a cold tone, though his face was twisted in pure rage.
Ten could do nothing but acknowledge it, though it mattered very little to him. And so, with a small nod to Rig, he slithered out of the room, leaving with a final:
He was answered with a grunt of approval from Rigel, who simply continued dismantling the mannequins.
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Cold stone beneath black scales. The scent of the students who had passed through the hall during the day filled the air, drawn in by slithering nostrils. Darkness was all there was to see, until two signatures of heat appeared from around a corner. Tenebris instantly connected their scent with the two redheads who talked with his master from time to time.
Moving slowly, silent and unseen as Death itself, he slithered toward them. With a swift flick of his tongue against the leg of one of the twins, the boy's body froze instantly.
"Fred... I think something licked my leg," George's voice, calm but laced with a hint of fear, resounded quietly between them, making sure not to alert anyone to their presence.
"As if... Who would lick your leg? They'd lick mine, they're far better after all," Fred was about to continue when something wrapped around his ankle, gliding its way up until it came to rest on his shoulder.
A cold dread wrapped around him. George, who hadn't noticed anything due to the pitch-black darkness, asked, "What? Why did you stop talking?" He turned, only to see his twin's face turn completely ashen, with a dark shadow moving near his head.
George cast a Lumos, dissolving the mystery of their assaulter: a black snake, or rather, Rigel's black snake.
An unhinged laugh escaped George, followed by a half-suppressed chuckle. "I didn't know I had a twin sister... getting so scared by a little snake."
Then, his gaze turned to Tenebris. "So, fellow prankster, do you want to eat him? Because I have to say, he isn't the tasty one."
Ten's head moved closer to take a sniff of Fred, then, with the most disgusted expression a serpent could master, he turned away. A low
Fred, who looked mock-offended by the snake's blatant disgust, scoffed, "Hey, I'm sure I'm pretty tasty! But if you want to eat him instead, go right ahead." He crossed his arms and turned his head away, though a small laugh escaped his lips.
Tenebris, thoroughly confused by the two humans, slithered down the boy's body until he was back on the ground. This time, he shifted his glare from one twin to the other, waiting expectantly for something.
The twins were left profoundly confused by the snake's glare, and in tandem, they asked, "Do you want to eat us?"
A sharp shake of Ten's head was all they needed to start having their fun, throwing one question after another at him. Minutes passed until George made his move.
"You want us to teach you how to make the best Dungbomb!" George pridefully announced, as if he had just discovered the meaning of life, only to be shut down by an irritated hiss and a negative shake of the head.
"Wait... I get it!" Fred exclaimed, looking as though he had just received a revelation from Merlin himself. "You want us to take you to the kitchens!"
And so, a pair of redhead twins, escorted by an exhausted snake, started heading toward the kitchens for a feast.
Hours passed, and a now-stuffed snake slithered through the dungeons of the castle until he reached his sweet den. He made sure not to wake his masbro or his sister from their sleep, eagerly waiting for the opportunity to rant about his adventure the next day.
The sun rose, bringing another day and the beginning of a new month. Between Tenebris's complaints and a few laughs, the following Saturday arrived, and at the stroke of eleven at night, Rigel got ready and left the warmth of his room with Ten at his side.....
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