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The Slytherin common room had always resembled an underwater cave: its walls were made of cold dungeon stone, its colonnades and pointed arches of ancient marble. Fake waterfalls replaced the sky in the windows, accentuating the blue and green colours of the vast, luxuriously furnished apartments of the most prestigious house.
The little boy who entered was perfectly suited to this setting. His pale complexion, wavy brown hair and grey eyes streaked with green gave him the appearance of having just emerged from a lake.
He hobbled along, leaning on a cane, as if his transformation into an earthly creature had been imperfect.
“Look, there’s Labdacos!” his classmates exclaimed.
The crippled child remained silent as he continued to cross the room slowly.
“Look how he walks,” chuckled a second-year student, prompting scattered sniggers.
“What's that clog you've got on your foot, Angustus?” taunted young Avery.
“What's that awful cologne you're wearing?“ mocked Parkinson.
“He doesn't even answer... He's such a little witch,“ sneered Robert Nott. “It's not just his right leg that must be too short.”
This last comment provoked general hilarity among the boys. Russell muttered something that must have been, “Miserable stinking cockroaches.“
The little boy disappeared down the stairs to the younger children's dormitory, his air of haughtiness clear to see. Once inside, he headed straight for his aquarium with a bag of dried piranha crisps in his hand. “Melanie...” he called gently.
But the aquarium was empty; Melanie had gone. He knelt down to look under his bed — perhaps the moray eel had jumped out of its glass enclosure. But he couldn't see anything.
“Accio moray eel!” he exclaimed in his childish voice.
Nothing happened.
He went back downstairs.
Immediately, everyone in the common room turned to look at him.
“Looking for something, Russell?” said Big Bob.
“Where is she?” Angus asked Nott coldly.
The last-year student pointed to the door of the dungeon toilets.
“Over there.”
“What do you mean?” Angus asked, turning even paler.
“In toilet number three.”
Angus rushed as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Wait! I forgot to tell you... I flushed the toilet.”
The little Slytherin froze.
“You didn’t dare?”
“Want to bet? Goodbye, baby eel. It's probably been eaten by the lake's strangulots by now.”
A burst of laughter erupted. There weren't many students, but the noise they made was the worst kind of infernal cacophony. They bared their teeth, stamped their feet and laughed until their sides hurt.
First, an imperceptible movement crossed Angus's face, like a spasm of the mouth, and then two large, round tears rolled down his cheeks. Two more followed. His hands began to tremble and his face turned red as tears streamed down his face uncontrollably. He slumped onto the black leather sofa, his mouth agape as if he were about to vomit or suffocate, crying like a small child. But these were not insignificant tears: there was something horrible about the way he cried and the way his stomach contracted. It was the final distress of someone being slaughtered.
The blonde boy with cold grey eyes who was standing near the globes took off his glasses and stopped writing. His hair was styled very formally, parted on one side, and fell in front of his eyes. There was something evanescent about him, yet he also had a presence — perhaps due to his hard face — which counterbalanced the fragility of his stature. He put his quill down in the inkwell and stood up.
Meanwhile, Angus Russell was slumped on the sofa, crying as if his heart had been torn out. Everyone was covering their ears and grumbling.
Young Lucius Malfoy left without anyone paying him any attention.
Several hours later, the boy returned, completely soaked, holding his wand in one hand and a bucket in the other. The water that had stuck his clothes to his skin accentuated his thinness.
All eyes turned to him.
“Where's Russell?” he asked. “I don't see him.”
“He's in the dormitory. He's crying.”
Lucius climbed the stairs with his bucket, his shoes squeaking on the stone steps.
Angus was no longer crying. He was lying on his bed in the foetal position, with a final tear dying on his still-pink face.
“Russell?”
A pair of dark eyes shifted towards him from beneath the canopy.
“What?”
“I found your moray eel,” said Lucius, pointing to the bucket.
“Liar,” Angus replied in his usual pompous tone. “Another trick to deceive me, to play me for a fool. You cannot be satisfied with your pitiful, deplorable existence as mangy rats.”
The other boy frowned, pursing his lips, before approaching and placing the bucket near the bed.
“See for yourself.”
Looking decidedly sceptical and hostile, the bipedal newt turned on his side to see if there was anything moving in the bucket. A very thin, snake-like fish, about ten centimetres long, was wriggling in the clear water.
“Melanie!” exclaimed Angus, jumping off the bed.
Then he looked up at the Saviour, who looked extremely pleased with himself.
“What are you waiting for? Put it in the aquarium!” Angus exclaimed.
The Malfoy heir stared at him for a moment as though he were an alien, then dropped the moray eel into the aquarium. Angus stood in front of the aquarium, his injured leg half-resting on the floor, and slipped his hand into the water to stroke the animal's back with his index finger. The eel began to twirl around in the water under his caress, as if happy to be reunited with its owner.
The child hobbled over to his desk, took out a packet of crisps, and offered his classmate one.
“Want some? They're special.”
“Oh yes, I'd love some,” replied Lucius, taking this as a thank you probably.
Angus poured some grey crisps into his hand. Lucius crunched two at once. But they tasted so awful that he turned green and started coughing. A light smile stretched across the little brown-haired boy's lips.
“It’s food for my moray eel,” he announced. “It's dried piranhas.”
Lucius immediately wanted to spit out what he had just swallowed.
“Are you crazy?!” he exclaimed.
“Don’t believe everything you hear!” said Angus. “And look at the mess you've made of the room!“
He turned his back and fed the same crisps to his moray eel.
“No wonder no one wants to be friends with you,” said Lucius, looking disgusted. “You're really odious.“
He turned around and left the room, his shoes squeaking as he went.