Chapter Text
The grandeur of the magnificent hall shone brightly, uncontained. The ceiling of night lit with a sea of glittering stars, clouds that parted for the moon, under which were floating candles that seemed never to dim, walls of stone enclosed the hall but allowed view of the nature outside with tall windows. Banners of red and gold, green and silver, bronze and blue, lastly yellow and black, all unraveled and draped above, showcasing the colors of each house with pride, aiming to proselytize the new unclaimed students still in a state of catatonic from the scene. Four long tables occupied by students in robes of different colors all gazed upon the spectacled wizard who stood at front.
In the middle and most elevated spot of the staff table, smiling benignly in his silver robes that expressed a gentle nature. The headmaster addressed the first years still in a daze at the qualities of the great hall. All had their eyes glued to the ceiling or in awe of everything… other than one blank and another fairly annoyed face standing among those eleven year olds.
A small girl, standing near a dark-haired, blank-looking boy, looked unbelievably irritated and unfazed by the decor around her. Eyes cut straight on to the headmaster with a look of something borderlining rude arrogance. The boy near her was half wet from sailing across the black lake and looked unhappy with having to stand near the crass girl.
The other students though, albeit a bit wet too, still gazed with eyes of delight over the new environment. Amongst those, a memorable one featured a blonde, green-eyed, androgynous male whose beauty suppassed believability, this student completely overshadowed a rather familiar handsome boy behind them. One that Dumbledore himself knew, Amos Diggory’s son. The headmaster’s eyes moved to the two twins Weasleys giggling to each other. His intuition, sharpened by years of teaching, gave an underlying feeling of excitement at this new batch of children.
He felt there would be trouble and chaos, harmony and balance with the acceptance of these new students. Smiling happily to himself, he welcomed the students as usual and watched the sorting ceremony overseen by Professor McGonagall.
“Firstly… Ashthorne, Hegemonia.”
Impatiently, the girl standing at front stepped forth and sat on the prepared stool as Minvera lifted the hat over the child's head.
The hat but grazed her head, no. It physically tried to flinch away from the girl while screeching aloud. “GRIFFINDOR!!!”
The girl stood as roars came from the left most table, adorned with glistening golden and crimson red. She walked with purposeful steps and gave a nasty side eye to the dark haired boy she was previously standing next to. The boy, despite the rude glare of the girl, remained unusually blank for a child. Perhaps it was then they were destined to be rivals, right before his eyes unfolded a new story that he never had anticipated. Albus Dumbledore continued watching while thinking mechanically to himself.
There was a recurring pattern among the bunch of children. A reserved boy who was curiously looking around stepped forward as his name was called.
“Atticus, Wisdom….” “RAVENCLAW!”
That hat announced loudly as it was lifted again by Minerva. “Caelestis, Nebula—”
The hat flopped around shrieking without even touching his hair. “SLYTHERIN!!!!”
Cheers ruptured from the silver-green table and the bored-looking boy took his seat there with a slight smirk at his fellow first year in Gryffindor.
The rest of the ceremony continued with Albus observing very intently.
People were shouting, laughing, cheering, creating a cacophony of mania. One she found utterly annoying. It was nothing like the war cries she led nor the synchrony of plans Nebula played against her.
Just childish, stupid, nonsensical noise. Nothing more. Still, she tried not to let her annoyance show too much lest she looked like the only reasonable human being here and draw useless attention. And it would be much easier if it wasn't for the fact that two idiotic, red-headed, twin jokers were sitting at her side or the awareness that Nebula was sitting right behind her at the Slytherin table. Nor was she remotely relieved that another fellow constellation was sorted into the same house, Richard… Knight, if she remembered correctly. A funny surname that he insisted on having despite having barely the qualities to be called one. Ashthorne, her own surname, was picked by Eldar to honor her personality. To be truthful, she gave no care to what she was called as long as it didn't sound stupid.
“Hey… you aight? You look mad pissed.”
“Yeah, I have never seen anyone look so annoyed on their first day here. Not even eating?”
‘Mine your own damn business’. Is what she would have said but she kept it to herself when the two twins engaged in a conversation with her.
“I'm fine.” She said curtly. While stabbing sausages with her fork with force that a regular eleven years old shouldn't have. But the two idiotic red-headeds only laughed.
“Hegemonia, you aren't stil—” Richard shut up at her glare and continued eating his supper.
“Ahahaha, shut him up so fast. You do have a glare like my mum.”
“One look is all it takes, ahahaha. Right?”
One of the two nudged her and she felt an urge to break a finger. Richard looked visibly scared for the twins but kept to himself. The twins clearly had no sense of preservation because they continued talking.
“What could have made you so mad, huh?”
“Is it that guy glancing at you from behind?” At that, Hegemonia snapped her head back to meet face to face with an almost dry, still disheveled, black hair boy around her age, but with an unforgettable poker face. Nebula.
“What are you looking at?” She rapped out.
… And this boy has the audacity to ignore her and go back to eating like nothing happened. ‘Bitch.’ Seeing her face darken considerably, the Weasleys put two and two together and; “Oh! So he was the one to sour your mood?”
“Eh, typical Slytherins.”
“Right, just ignore him for today,”
“—and hex him tomorrow.”
“Since we're classmates, I'll even back you up.”
“See? Two people on your side.”
Hegemonia shook her head. “…No, it's fine.”
The twins looked disappointed but agreed somewhat.
“Be the better person I guess.”
“Lucky guy, lucky guy.”
“You sure you don't wanna like.. at least just jinx him?”
“Just a minor one, like making his tongue glue the roof of his mouth, or making his toenails grow abnormally…”
Hegemonia just shook her head. “No. It wouldn't be worth it. He wouldn't go down so easily.” She glanced behind despite herself.
The two twins watched her for a moment in silence, her absolute certainty in her judgment rendered them temporarily stunted. Their eyes followed hers to the boy behind.
And without looking back, the boy echoed her words. “What are you looking at?” Hegemonia rolled her eyes and turned back to her untouched food.
It was safe to say that it wasn't safe. Eldar peeked over heads to look at two short heads, a blank faced boy met his gaze and tilted his head in greetings. Eldar smiled at him awkwardly and looked past him to Hegemonia.
Hegemonia has been in a foul mood since the day they went shopping in Diagon Alley, and still was when riding the express and sailing across the lake. Additionally, failure in pushing Nebula completely in the water also soured her mood further. Not to mention getting permission to bring Alma in as a pet serpent was a headache.
He hoped that her anger would subside soon, since Hegemonia didn't really like holding on to grudges for too long, that was a plus.
“Hey, who are you looking at?” A senior asked him. Eldar was temporarily spooked but calmed himself and smiled.
“I was just looking for my friend.”
“Friend, huh… At the Slytherin table?”
“Uh, yeah.” The senior nodded.
“Black hair and condescending bastard?”
Lunda, who was eavesdropping, coughed loudly as she tried to hide her laugh. She was unsuccessful but the senior didn't care. Eldar answered slowly. “Uh.. yeah?”
“…I mean, I'm not one to judge but he doesn't look too kind. Are you sure he's your friend?”
Eldar awkwardly tried to uphold Nebula’s reputation even though he knew Nebula wouldn't care. “He looks a bit… dismissive, but he's not all that bad.”
“Eldar, he is all that bad. He just doesn't completely ignore you.” Lunda eventually calmed and remarked.
The senior, after listening to Lunda asked. “You know him too?”
“…Unfortunately. Competent but also a complete bastard, the only person he treats reasonably is Eldar and a few others.”
“How do you know him?”
“... I know his relatives, but Eldar actually knows him.” Lunda recited easily. After all these years as constellations, twisting truths came easily.
“Alright… considering he's a Slytherin though, be careful.” The senior warned quietly.
Eldar nodded “Ah, alright… ok.”
“Not saying he's terrible and cut ties, just saying you need to be careful. Slytherins are unpredictable.” Eldar nodded again but felt slightly sorry because he was going to disregard the advice entirely.
The senior smiled and turned away, another boy watching the exchange with wide eyes then spoke up with disbelief. “You're friends with that grump looking guy?”
Eldar laughed awkwardly, defending Nebula was hard when he constantly wore that face that drew nothing but irritation from surrounders. The boy understood that Eldar wanted to avoid the topic and so he dropped it.
“Eldar Vellichor, right?”
“Yes, and you must be Cedric Diggory.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” Lunda watched as she was forgotten, Eldar already got the attention of the whole school due to his face card. Lunda wasn't particularly envious of Eldar. No, she felt bad, everyone was just openly staring.
“You're… Lunda, right” Cedric turned to Lunda and asked.
“Uh, yeah… Lunda Harvest.”
“Nice name, how long have you known Eldar?” And Lunda was absorbed into the conversation.
‘What is he looking at?’ Nebula tilted his head at Eldar's gaze, but his attention was soon stolen by a voice echoing in his head.
-It was successful.
-Good.
The lizard hidden under folds of fabric continued.
-Everything is as predicted. There are no inconsistencies.
-Naturally.
Kyle nodded and borrowed deeper into Nebula's sweater. Nebula disconnected from the magical conversing system and eyed the staff table.
After the feast, Dumbledore stood and introduced the professor who currently was the defence against the dark arts position, a position cursed with instability for about 30 years now. The new teacher was a member of the Hall of Myriad Stars... Krampus.