Chapter Text
At last, today was the day. The day I would move to Hogwarts with my older brother, Axel Seth Dercink. It was nothing special, he just wanted to become a professor at one of the schools he attended when he was a child, as he had finished all of his schooling by the age of 15.
See, Axel’s what people call a prodigy, he’s an instant genius at almost everything he touches; like being that one nerd who’s actually good at sports. When Axel was a child he had finished multiple schools from different countries by the age of 14, and by the beginning of his year at 15 he had gotten a bit sick of his 'old fashioned' teachers and their methods, so Axel decided to make a change.
Now he’s become one of the youngest professors, fully graduating at 23, and wanting to teach at Hogwarts, the first school for his teaching escapades.
But at this very moment, he was annoying me about packing my bags for our new living situation.
“Are you sure you’ve got everything!?” My brother said, calling out to me with a tone I in no way appreciated.
“Yeeesss..!” I replied yelled, back drawing out my reply in exasperation.
“When I say everything you know I’m being literal, right??” He was at his most buggy self when it came to being orderly and punctual.
“Yes, I’ve packed literally everything I own. Which isn’t much to be honest..” I said, mumbling to myself in my later sentence.
“Good, because we’re leaving in ten minutes.” He replied nonchalantly. I didn't even need to see his face to tell that he was grinning.
“TEN MINUTES?!” I repeated, rushing upstairs to pack my whole room into bags. After all, the plan was to stay at Hogwarts till I graduate.
I was upstairs before I could hear my brother laugh, as he full well knew we wouldn’t be leaving until another hour, at the least, the perfect amount of time for me to pack everything I owned.
After my quick packing rush of hastily shoving clothes and items into bags, we apparated off to where I thought would be vast school halls like my brother had described. But we were instead met with an old carriage with 4 dark skeletal pegassi leading the front of it.
“um..” I looked up at my brother in pure confusion. He simply laughed at my bewildered expression.
“This is what we’ll be taking to the castle.” Axel assured, smiling down at me as he gestured to the carriage in front of us.
“But why can’t we just apparate all the way there? Wouldn’t that be easier?” I asked, as not simply taking the quickest route for convenience had me slightly perplexed. Though, I figured that Axel must have a reason.
“I’m not officially a professor yet so I’m not permitted to use that sort of magic in the school for now, plus this way you’ll get to see the school from afar like all the other students, isn’t that cool?” I caught on quickly with what Axel actually meant; he was trying to make me feel more comfortable, what with a complete new living arrangement and all. It was just like Axel to pick up on something that made me nervous, after all he's known me for most of my life.
I simply smiled while following my brother into the carriage. Though I couldn’t help but inquire about the strange pegassi.
“Hey Axe?” I asked, looking out the window as I pondered very last minute on whether I should go through with my question or not.
“Yes?” He replied, flicking through a book as light reading on our short journey.
Well, I might as well ask now, and it's not the stupidest of questions. “What are the dead pegassi called? Or are they just dead pegassi?” I said as my brother stopped flipping through his book and stared directly at me. Or, maybe it was a stupid question?
“You can see them..?” Axel questioned, eyes bulging like a frogs as he closed his book entirely with a low 'paff'. I didn't usually ask questions, and now I was starting to regret asking at all. When people questioned my questions it always made me feel pretty stupid, even if they were simply just asking me to repeat myself.
“Sorry.... Am I not supposed to?” I muttered, slouching back in my seat as I thought more on whether I should whip up a new potion that rewinds time and increases intelect.
“No no, never apologise for asking.” Axel said, shaking his head as he reiterated one of his 'rules', although it was one I could never follow all too well.
“Thestrals.” He said after having turned back to the front of the carriage.
“Huh?” I asked, breaking from my stupor of shame and regret.
“They’re called thestrals. I was just shocked because only those who’ve seen death can witness them.” My brother said solemnly while simultaneously deep in thought
“Huh.” I uttered out as I frowned to myself.
I was found by Axel in an old forest by one of his family's holiday homes at about 3-4 years old, he was 13 at the time. Axel basically raised me, and at such a young age too. Though, being a prodigy comes with it's perks of being a naturally quick learner, it probably also helped that I seemed semi-capable of, somewhat, taking care of myself, which was very odd…. Along with some.. Other... Strange things-
“WHoA-” I was cut from my thoughts as my brother and I were harshly halted to a stop in the carriage.
I had almost completely missed the scenery, but the view of the ginormous, looming castle that floated above the lake just as the sun was setting had made up for it.
I never noticed my brother silently smiling at me as I looked at the view in absolute awe and amazement, leaning out of the side of the carriage as far as I could to simply to get closer to the miraculous view. After about a minute of staring, I bolted out of the ride, quickly thanking the nice thestrals and coach for the journey and speeding off to the amazing castle with my brother in tow.
The tour of the castle was a bit boring, almost all the halls looked the same, which I knew I’d get mixed up in. At least I finally got to meet the nice Professor McGonagal, who I know of from my brothers letters. Her and all the other staff were supposed to be loosely informed of my certain…. Speciality..-
“Ow..” All of a sudden, when rounding a corner I bumped into someone rather boney.
“And this, as you must know, is the castle caretaker, Mr Filch.” Announced Professor McGonagal, addressing a very lean, pointy, and angry looking man. Suddenly I felt something soft and agile curl around my leg.
“Hm?” An old looking tabby cat was making its way around my leg.
“Awww..” I cooed, crouching down so that I could pet her at a better angle.
“Oi-!” The older man started, but cut himself off as he saw the cat lean into my touch. Most animals seem placid around me, I once got lost at a non-magic zoo when I was 6, they found me playing with a tiger cub, completely unharmed. Although the mother seemed a bit frightened and weary, at least that's what Axel told me.
Relaxing a bit, the old caretaker looked up at my brother and the other professor, nodding his head slightly as a greeting.
“Young Dercink- or should I say, Professor Dercink.'' He proclaimed with a bit of a tone.
“I heard yeh’d be back, better not be as troublesome as yeh were before.” The caretaker said with a small smile.
Hold on, that sounds nothing like my brother- I was cut off by Axel's laughter.
“Haha, very amusing, Mr caretaker.” He seemed to take this very scary man lightly as they shook hands. My brother went on and introduced me.
“And this is my little sister, she’ll be a new fourth year student here. She won't be any trouble.” He gestured towards me as I held my new cat friend in my arms.
“Hmm.. well Mrs Norris seems teh like yeh, so I don’t mind.” The old caretaker said, eyeing me very obviously while I internally questioned he would mind in the first place.
Shrugging it off his him being a typical grump, I handed him back his lovely cat as we continued on with the very repetitive tour. Every now and again we’d bump into another professor or staff member, they’d have a nice moment with my brother and we’d continue on our way again.
The only professors and staff that caught my attention were the potions, alchemy and DADA(defence against the dark arts) professors; Professors Severus Snape, Cuthbert Binns and Alastor Moody, along with a nice lady named Madame Pomfrey. We had met Moody first, he was a rather large man with very oily yet smooth looking hair and a false eye, but it seemed to work exponentially better than much real one.
“Hello.” He said rather curt and gitteringly.
Apparently Axel hadn’t met him before, as he gave Professor Moody his usual greeting that had been perfected over the years for new encounters.
“Greetings, it is a pleasure to formally meet you Mr Alastor Moody. I had no idea you would be teaching as a Professor here. It is such an honour to meet such a well renowned Auror.” He said in such a passive and submissive tone.
Nice. My brother always taught me that to get on someone’s good side, particularly adults, all you had to do was stroke their ego the tiniest bit; just enough for them to not know that you’re doing it. Though it didn’t work for me quite like it did for Axel.
“Yeah whatever.” The apparent Auror mumbled while hobbling past us aggressively, even though it didn't seem he had much to do.
Well, that was odd, no one’s ever turned down Axel’s teachers pet advances, even in adulthood. I decided not to linger on it, even if the interaction left me with slight unease sorrounding this 'moody' character.
After professor Moody, we met Madame Pomfrey, which was a short encounter as she was rather busy, but she was polite and seemed kind. I was very excited when finding out she specialised in healing and hoped to meet her again.
The next professor we meet was professor Binns, who turned out to be a ghost, followed by professor Snape straight after.
Axel had already homeschooled me prior to attending this one, and potions and alchemy were by far my two most favourite and well-read subjects. Adding and mixing bizarre ingredients together to make an entirely new result was so incredible and truly magical to me, so meeting the two of them was an absolute honour, and my brother definitely knew of my excitement.
“Hello! I am very honoured to meet and learn from your teachings!” I said to them individually with surplus enthusiasm.
Professor Binns had smiled and nodded while professor Snape had simply narrowed his eyes and upturned his nose slightly.
“I only hope you’re almost half as good at potions as your brother.” Snape said abruptly.
“Oh, trust me professor, she’s much better and more interested in potions than I was. I could barely teach her enough.” My brother encouraged. Snape gave a small, hardly noticeable smirk.
“We’ll see then.” He said looking down at me with doubt. Sounds like a challenge.