A Gaunt's Coven Ch. 38

Madam Pomfrey did not give me detention for staining her bedsheets. In fact the next morning she quickly ushered me out of the Hospital Wing, not daring to look into my eyes.

I entered the Great Hall to stares. I guess word had gotten out that I had been injured. Or maybe some other crazy rumor came about from the famed Hogwarts Rumor Mill.

I quickly found Daphne and Tracey, Calypso sitting next to them. The Black girl gave me a searching look with a slight blush on her face. Did the girls tell her about what they had been up to the night before? Surprisingly the Carrow twins also sat next to them. Their dual silent stares reminded me of our impromptu broom closet blow job. Lastly was the welcoming sight of Fleur, who I hadn't been able to speak to much in the past week.

“Reigis!” The Veela called standing up and giving me a tight hug.

Her Allure pulled at my mind, but I clamped down on my Occlumency shields enough that I didn’t start poking her stomach.

“Hey Fleur, too busy to visit me?” I teased, hugging her back and kissing the top of her head.

Fleur rolled her eyes good naturedly.

“Had to deal with some stuff, sorry. Didn't even know where you were until this morning.”

“All good,” I replied, taking my seat. “Morning Calypso, Hestia, Flora. Miss me?”

“Not going to say good morning to us?” Tracey asked.

“Pretty sure I saw you two pretty early today,” I said with a wink.

Apparently that hadn't been discreet enough because everyone except Tracey and the Carrows blushed.

“Uhm, good morning Reigis,” Calypso replied before diving back into her meal.

“Er… So Fleur, how was your first week?” I asked my eyes scanning the hall.

“Eh, Fourth year doesn't seem too bad based on what the professors have gone over so far… what are you looking for?”

I glanced at Tracey and Daphne, both of them in the know of the dark spirit Tom.

“Nothing.”

The spirit of Tom Riddle could have taken over anyone. A teacher, a boy, a girl, even one of the ones I was sitting with.

I didn't want to distrust Fleur, but I would be cautious for a while.

I would need to do research, I don’t think whatever Tom used to keep his soul alive was a Horcrux, only the diary ever having similar power. But this hadn’t been a slow takeover like with Ginny, this had been an immediate possession.

His diary! Did this version of Tom Riddle have one? If anyone were to know it would be my great-aunt Merope. I barely knew the woman, with her being ostracized in the family for marrying a muggle.

While I was sitting in the Hospital Wing I thought about whether I should even bother dealing with Tom Riddle, despite me being responsible for his… release? But if Harry Potter taught me anything it was that Voldemort was a bitch that could hold a grudge.

Ignoring him would only lead to either myself or someone I cared about dying.

“Reigis?” Fleur said, finger’s gliding across my hand bringing me back to the present. “Are you- Merlin! Your arm!”

I looked down to where she was touching me. Her fingers were now on one of the many seared black strips that went from hand to shoulder. The other girls focused on it, even a few that were not in my group.

“Yeah… I tripped down the stairs.”

Fleur gave me an unimpressed look.

“That’s dark magic.”

“They were very dark stairs… alright I found a cursed ring and it did this to me. No biggie.”

Fleur’s angry eyes said that it was indeed a “biggie” but she was cut off.

“Hot,” the Carrows said together.

I raised an eyebrow at them and they shrugged.

“Scars are hot.”

“Non, scars are not hot. Having someone whole and intact is hot,” Fleur disagreed, taking my arm and inspecting it.

“Its okay Fleur, the scars are only surface level.”

“Hmm,” was her reply, too busy looking at the marks.

“... Want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?”

“Hmm,” she hummed again. Then after a few moments she scowled at me. “Yes. Now shush.”

I snorted and let the girl have her fun, using my other hand to eat breakfast. Eventually she accepted that yes, no amount of rubbing at it would make the scars go away and she just held my arm, leaning her head on my shoulder.

“So… a date?” She asked.

I swallowed my eggs.

“Yeah, we're free to come and go to Hogsmeade on weekends. And we havent had a date together. How can I say I'm interested if I never take you out?”

Fleur smiled, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Good. Don't wear anything too stuffy though.”

“Alright, you can wear anything and I'd love it.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. Even in a chicken suit you'dbe breathtaking.”

She snorted, giving me another kiss on the cheek before standing.

“Well I need to get to classes. I'll talk to you guys at lunch.”

The rest of us finished eating and headed toward our own classes. The first class was Double Potions with the Gryffindors. Which was great, hopefully. Double Potions meant that they were actually brewing something rather than an intructionary class.

Their teacher was Professor Yazzie, a Native American woman that came from the States after pursuing her Mastery. Like with Professor Evans (I still had to stop myself from saying Potter on accident) their first lesson was on the Contraceptive Potion.

At first I thought it was a bit much that they were the first things we were taught, then I was dragged into a broom closet by the Carrow twins. Now I paid the utmost attention to the lesson, committing the recipe and spell to memory. No need for little Gaunt’s to be running around.

“Hello class,” Professor Yazzie said, entering the classroom in the dungeons. “I hope you all remember our last class. Today we will be actually attempting to brew the Contraceptive Potion. Note, unless I say so do not try and actually use the potion you brew today. If one of you girls ingested a bad brew, it could lead to infertility, hormonal issues, severe cramping or even extreme fertility.”

The beautiful caramel skinned teacher waved her arm at the board, the ingredients and steps to the potion being written by chalk.

Professor Yazzie explained in her first class that she did not go to Ilvermony, and instead went to a hidden smaller school somewhere else in North America. There most native american magicals go to said school, not only learning up to date subjects like Potions and Transfiguration, but also Rituals, Blood Magic, and Totemancy. A rare form of magic that gave a wide myriad of abilities to both magicals and muggles based on the animal of the totem. Professor Yazzie refused to go more into detail about those, as all three subjects were heavily regulated in Britain.

According to the Professor their versions of Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration were technically taught at the same level, but in reality they were generally behind the curve compared to this side of the ocean.

And instead of using Wands like most of Europe and MACUSA they used bracelets. Professor Yazzie’s being wooden beads with a bronze metal inlay in the form of different magical creatures.

“You may pick your partners and begin, hopefully you paid attention watching me last class, but regardless I will go around and help you all out.”

The original Reigis Gaunt was quite adept at Potions, as it required almost no magical power. Unlike what I originally thought, Potions did use magic in the brewing process. Just instead of waving a wand and casting a spell Potions was all about instinct and intent. Magical Herbs used the intent of the magical when being processed to properly change into the correct reactions. The calmer and more attentive the brewer the better the potion would turn out.

Damn, Snape really fucked over Harry’s generation. How was anyone supposed to be calm when a bat-like cunt was over your shoulder and constantly insulting you? Maybe that was his way of trying to make them calm in any scenario?

Nah, Snape was just an asshole.

Tracey and Daphne both looked at me, a silent conversation between the three of us, and the two girls went off together to set up their equipment. The Carrow twins moved off, never more than arms reach from one another, and Calypso started toward me.

However the extremely short Pansy Parkinson moved into her pathway.

“Black! Its been a while.”

“Uh, yeah, hey Parkinson.”

“Oh call me Pansy, want to work together.”

Thrown off Calypso agreed, giving me a sheepish look as she moved off.

It was fine, I talked to the girl a lot already as she made quick friends with Daphne and Tracey. I could instead talk to someone that I hadn’t been able to since the train ride.

Hermione Granger set up her equipment alone in the back of the classroom.

That was already an odd sign. Hermione from the books would be in the front of the class, asking question after question.

But this wasn’t eleven year old Hermione. This was eighteen year old Hermione, who grew up in the Muggle world. Holding her to the book version was silly.

“Hey Hermione, wanna work together?” I asked.

Hermione looked up in surprise, looking left and right as though a different Hermione would appear out of nowhere and agree.

“Oh, hey Reigis. Sure!” a look of relief crossed her face and she smiled at me.

I noticed that she didn’t smile with her teeth, and I wondered if she was insecure about them.

“Sweet, want me to grab your ingredients for you?”

“No thank you, I want to get familiar with the ingredient closet.”

“Good idea, lets go together.”