Chương 18: The Lake, The Coward and The Silver Blood

Charles Gaunt POV

After his odd little encounter with Emily, Charles rushed over to the Great Hall where he had told his friends to wait only to find them bickering quietly. As he got closer, they noticed him and stopped which Charles found strange but mostly ignored as he had more important matters. The double lesson of Potions as well as the confrontation afterwards had made him hungrier than he usually would be and all he really cared about currently was getting some much-needed food in his stomach.

He sat down next to his oddly silent mates and picked a few sandwich slices from the prepared selection, not particularly caring about its exact contents. Blaise looked as if he wanted to say something to him, but Theo was holding him back. Perhaps there was more to it, but that was all Charles could gather from their whispers.

Lunch was a slightly awkward ordeal, seeming that his friends weren't in the mood for talking – talking to him at least. But that was fine, Charles had never been a stranger to quiet. To him, talking as much as he had this was something to be proud of. Still, he was a little grateful when Tracey and Daphne arrived as, having eaten his full, he had very little to do other than think to himself as he waited for Theo and Blaise to sort themselves out.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait too long as they jumped up in protest when the girls tried to drag Charles off with them, claiming they already had plans to go swimming. The tension was soon gone after that and the boys left to their dorms to get their towels.

They spent the afternoon splashing around by the lake shore. The water was cold and gave them shivers but the boys still submerged themselves regardless, determined to enjoy one of the last days of warmth and sun before winter arrived. As Theo's family owned their very own lake, he had grown up able swim almost whenever he wanted and had gotten quite good at it, proving himself to be the better swimmer in each of the races he made them have.

Charles himself wasn't the best of swimmers, having only had a few lessons at one of his old schools, so he refused to go in too deep and preferred to stay in the shallower ends to practise. Meanwhile, Theo and Blaise took turns dunking their heads underwater whilst the other counted, trying to beat Charles's current record. Earlier, they had also competed at who could stay under the water the longest and, though it was the only thing he had been able to beat them in, Charles had won by a landslide.

There was something about blissfully lounging about in the sun that soothed the mind. Perhaps it was that he knew most everyone else were stuck in their classrooms, sitting in hard chairs as they listened to the droning of their teachers. He especially felt bad for whoever was stuck in History, with Professor Binns. Truly there was no man, or should he say ghost, as boring him, Charles thought. Charles wondered how envious the Ghost's class would be if they knew he was floating relaxingly across the lake whilst they slaved away.

After dinner, Charles met up with Tracey to help with her homework, as he had promised to do at the start-of-the-year banquet. Theo and Blaise were also invited to join, but they ran off with the excuse of being 'too tired' and that they needed to owl their families. Charles thought they were just being lazy but made no effort to stop them.

Tracey plopped her small stack of homework onto the common room table they sat beside and Charles began sorting through it, looking for anything she had already done or at least started. However it quickly became clear that there was no such work to be found. But that was fine with him.

Charles had planned on doing most of her work from the get-go. First off it would be faster that way, and secondly, he was positive it would get her a high mark, which meant she would most likely rely on him to help her again. The more capable he proved himself to be, the faster people would notice the benefit of having him as a friend. When that happened, he would purposefully become less helpful to others, thus making the times he did help appear more valuable. Not to mention, people like Tracey who he had helped freely would become more grateful.

Of course, these were nothing but speculations at this point and as there no way of telling whether things would pan out as he expected, there was little use thinking about it too much. For now, he would just enjoy a little bit of showing off.

Things were going just as planned until about a half hour through their study session. Charles had finished rewriting his own D.A.D.A essay about zombies and was about to move onto Charms when Daphne showed up with a disapproving look upon her face. Apparently she had made Tracey promise not to push all of her work onto him and when she had seen her friend essentially leeching off of Charles's work, found it impossible not to intervene.

Deciding that it was her job to supervise her friend, Daphne sat down with them at their table after grabbing her own unfinished work from her room whilst the now sulking Tracey was forced to write using her own quill.

Charles was disappointed by the course of events, as it meant his grand plans had to be put aside for the time being, but not enough to argue with Daphne. Especially when on a fundamental level he actually agreed with her. It wasn't all bad, however, as her coming over also meant he had a second person to could help out.

Charles spent most of the evening answering their questions and doodling uselessly in his notebook. But when his pencil ran out of lead, he walked over to the Slytherin bookshelves that lined the walls to find something else to pass the time. He lacked knowledge of both magic and of the world he now lived in and the first year coursebooks did little to help this problem, as he doubted knowing how to shoot green sparks from his wand were the limits of spellcasting and reading about the thirteenth century certainly wouldn't teach him much about today's happenings.

Five minutes into his perusing the shelves, Charles had picked up a few books on recent wizard history – mostly grabbing anything that mentioned the Gaunt name – and a thick book called 'The Dark Arts Outsmarted' which, with short look through, Charles found to have much more useful spells than the ones the school had him learning.

Once Charles was satisfied with his choices, he started making his way back to the girls.

'They should almost be done now.' Daphne had been helping Tracey with her last bit of homework when he left. Suddenly, an older student came dashing towards him from the boys dorms. Charles stepped backwards to make it easier for him to pass but once the boy made it to him, he didn't continue moving and instead stumbled shakily to a halt right in front of him.

Charles eyed him suspiciously. The boy huffed and puffed in his spot, as though the room hadn't enough air to breathe. His combed back black hair revealed eyes that dared not look at Charles directly and his thin body hunched slightly, bringing him closer to Charles's own height. He didn't look well.

"Need something?" Charles tested.

"Yes!" said the older boy, as if in a rush. "Wait, no… I mean… I happened to notice you were looking at the um, books over there."

"Slow down. Shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" Charles felt strange to have to give someone else advice on communication.

"Right, yes, Kennen Burke. Third year." He reached out his hand to shake and Charles took it. Kennen seemed pleased to have gotten at least one thing right.

Charles walked closer to the corner and gestured for the third year to follow. Kennen's entrance had caught too much attention for his liking. "You mentioned seeing me by the bookshelves," said Charles, thinking Kennen would find it easier if he led the conversation. "Was I not supposed to borrow any of the books, I hadn't realised they were for decorative purposes only."

"Oh no, you can take as many of those as you like, but there's not much there that you can't find inside the library, so they go mostly untouched." Charles had figured as much anyway and was beginning to get annoyed at what was looking like a waste of his time. His gaze sharpened on Kennen, warning the boy to get to the point of whatever he wanted to say.

Kennen got the message. "Well I couldn't help but notice you were looking at a few spell books," he said hurriedly. "And I thought you might want something 'a little more useful'." With his jewellery adorned hands, Kennen pulled a thin purple hard-back from inside his robe.

'Looks fancy.'

Noticing he now had Charles's interest, his demeanour shifted to one a little more confident. "Are you interested?" he asked cockily. But Charles could tell it was an act.

He snatched the book from his hands. "Wait, you can't just –," he was quickly silenced by a nasty glare from Charles.

'Coward.'

Charles flicked the book open to a random page. 'Expulso Curse.' The spell created a powerful explosion wherever the caster's wand was pointed. 'Sounds dangerous…' Charles read the next page, and then the next.

Finally he closed the book and looked at Kennen who was staring at the ground looking lost. "What do you want in return?" he questioned.

Kennen's face brightened. "Nothing!" he said. "My family has a lot of books like this, and truth is, that one's just a copy. Got a dozen more of them at home."

Charles doubted his words. "Why are you giving this to me, get to the point already."

"I need your help," he admitted.

"Help with what?"

"My family," Kennen said pitifully. "If I don't prove myself this year, then they're going to disown me so that my younger brother can inherit the Lordship. But I'm not very good at magic, everyone thought I was a squib when I was little."

A squib was the opposite of a muggleborn Charles had learned, a child from a wizarding family unable to use magic. Supposedly they weren't treated well by their families.

"I need to show them I'm worth something, and the only way I can do that is with you."

Charles found himself feeling a little sorry for the spindly looking boy. He had always wanted a family whilst growing up, but if this is what one was like, the he supposed he might have been lucky without one.

"What good does coming to me do you. It's not like I can do anything about any of this." Charles questioned, confused. "How does giving me a book help you?"

"Because you're Charles Gaunt! A descendant of Salazar himself," Kennen said in a hushed shout. "No family would pass up the opportunity to be allies with you, especially now that You-Know-Who is gone."

Charles wanted to ask what You-Know-Who had to do with any of this but realised doing so would likely give his lack of knowledge away. And the Burke family didn't seem like people he would want to know that.

"So you give me this book and I give you what exactly," asked Charles. Whatever it was, he thought himself likely to agree. Kennen had claimed to have a dozen of these books at his house and Charles couldn't help but wonder what other books they had there. He wanted to find out.

"I just need you to act as though we're allies," Kennen told him, speaking much more calmly than before, relieved that Charles seemed to be coming onboard with his plan. "If I send them a letter claiming us to be close, then they might change their mind. At the very least I won't have to worry about being disowned this year."

Charles thought about it for a moment. 'If this is all he's asking for then I don't see why not. This book isn't worth much to him, that's why he's only asking for me to pretend to be his friend, instead of being more demanding.' Charles looked at the book in question. 'The Mysteries of Dark Magic. Doesn't sound like a book they'd sell at Diagon Alley.'

"Deal."

"Huh?"

"I said I agree." Charles took Kennen's hand and shook it firmly. "To our long-lasting friendship Kennen Burke," he joked, before walking off with his fancy new book, leaving an elated Kennen behind.

That night, Charles dreamed of travelling through a dark and moody forest, covered in mist. But it was strange. Everything seemed much larger than it was supposed to, he had never seen trees so tall, rocks so large – even the grass towered above him. He slithered slowly on the ground, with no control over where his body went.

The moon hung high in the midnight sky, illuminating the path forward. Something was calling him, he felt it. It was leading him somewhere. However it wasn't the only call he felt. There was another from behind him, wherever that was, but it was weaker, much weaker. Curious as he was, he had choice but to keep moving forward.

Eventually, the trees opened up into a small clearing by a shining pool of water. Charles stopped for the first time. Pure elation filled him when the sight of a huge figure, hunched over by a mass of white fur, entered his vision. He desired nothing more than to please the creature, to do its bidding. If only it would call for him, he knew it could see him.

"Master," Charles hissed gently. He wanted to move closer, but his body refused. All of a sudden, his master was gone, taking whatever feeling he had given Charles along with him. Charles no longer cared about whatever that figure was, he was hungry.

Luckily, the creature hadn't finished its meal. He slid closer to it in order to get a better look at what he would be eating. A white stallion bleeding silver blood. For some reason he no longer had any desire towards it. He turned around; towards the call he had felt earlier but ignored. He would eat after he got there he decided.

Charles slithered back the way he had come, in a trance, as the sun started to rise – its light blinding him. He passed the familiar tall trees as their leaves fell down and moved around the bouldering rocks until once again, they opened up. This time leading to an enormous castle of stone.