Slytherin [C]

“JASON SADAT!”

Like the many student before him he hurried over to the talking hat.

Jumping up on the hard stall, he swung his legs where they weren’t quiet long enough to to reach the floor.

All he saw was black as the hat was placed on him. Far to big to sit on his correctly, the lac of hair made it easy to slide down his head. He heard laughter around the hall, but he didn't care. He was so giddy with excitement that he couldn't sit still.

“Hmm, let me see.” He heard the hats voice whisper in his ear. He jumped, despite expecting it.

Barely on the stall for more then five seconds, his house name was bellowed across the hall.

“SLYTHERIN.”

Doing a slight fist bump he hurried down to the table. The hat would of gone with him if it wasn't for the Professor taking it off his heard.

His heart raced with excitement as his house yelled and cheered, someone patted him on the back him.

Finding an empty seat on the long table, he stopped paying attention to the students to marvel at the great hall.

When another yell of Slytherin was called out into the Great Hall, Lyo wooped along with the other older students.

They were getting a lot of Slytherin's this year. He was beyond pleased. Maybe they could win the House Cup this year with all the promising new students.

When the newest Slytherin, a tiny boy for his age Lyo was certain had been called Jason by the professor stood sternly with the hat, sat down, Lyo leaned over to clap him on the shoulder. He'd sat himself at the near end of the table this year so he could greet the newbies that came to sit down.

"Welcome to Slytherin," he greeted in his thick accent.

Feeling another hand pat him, Jason turned to look up in awe at the tall boy. He had to stain his neck slightly to look up at him.

"Thank you!" It was laced with his own thick accent.

He gave the older boy a wide grin, revealing one of his front tooth missing.

"Are you a Professor? Why aren't you down with the others?"

He ignored as the table beside them erupted as another student was sorted.

He stared down at the boy shocked for a moment before a wide grin curled his lips and he barked out a laugh.

"I'm a sixth year. One of the Slytherin prefects."

He supposed it wasn't the first time a newbie had mixed him up with a staff member. He wasn't wearing the full uniform. He'd chosen to leave his robe in his room, which left him in a white button down that he'd rolled the sleeves of up to his elbows, and a loose Slytherin tie. His height added to the non-student look.

"If you have any trouble, come to me."

"Oh! I see!"

He laughed along with the sixth year.

"Will do! I bet you can easily scare people off being a prefect."

He looked around the table. The vast majority looked like gangly and screwy teenagers like him. Non of them really compared to the tall boy next to him.

The sixth year shall be his first friend then!

Jason stuck his hand out towards the taller boy, as he has seen his siblings do many times to introduce themselves.

"I'm Jason."

"I've scared a few people off before. You'd think I was, um..." Lyo lowered his voice and glanced around to see if anyone was looking at them or listening in. "Voldemort for the amount of shit I get sometimes."

Alyosha wasn't scared of the name. To be scared of a name was to give a man power and Lyo wasn't the sort of person that would do that.

He shook Jason's hand when it was offered.

"Alyosha Belov."

Jason was taken aback when Aloysha spoke them name.

"You said his name!" He hissed to the boy. Superstition made him glance over his shoulder just to double check. Relief swept over him and he turned back to Aloysha, jade eyes gleaming.

He bounced a little in his seat.

"You're so cool, Aloysha! Even my mama won't say his name."

"To fear a name is to give power to a person." He broad shoulders rolled under the white fabric of his shirt.

He didn't give anyone undue power.

Lyo shifted, leaning over so he could get a look at the last student to be sorted. A Gryffindor. Lyo's lips twitched. Great. Another kid to their rival house.

"Dinner will be ready soon."

"Yeah!"

What Aloysha said just went straight over his head. Jason simply nodded eagerly in agreement.

"That's good! I am so hungry, I could eat a whole chicken. And not a little one either, a big one."

He stretched his hand out to show how big of chicken he meant.

"I hope there isn't a speech or anything because they are so boring!"

His hopes were shattered when the headmaster stood up to silence them all.

"Welcome new students, welcome back old students, don't go into the forbidden forest, don't poke your nose into the third floors locked doors, these are the new fifth year prefects, enjoy your year, feast," Lyo whispered in Jason's ear as their Headmaster began his speech.

Lyo had memorised this over the years.

Maybe he was a terrible prefect for ignoring the speech, but it really didnt mean anything to him now. He knew the new prefects. He'd met them all on the train. That was all that was important to him.

The young man turned his attention from the Headmaster, and began thinking up how he could get the time to chat with a friend.

Jason covered his mouth as he sniggered.

"I wish the speech was as quick as you said it. It don't think I can remember the old man saying."

He wasn't the best at whispering, and a few older student glared at him to keep it down. They really don't want points taken from them on the first night back.

Lyo waved off the students glares with a casual flick of his hand. Whispers during the speech weren't uncommon.

As soon as a bad rendition of the Hogwarts song was finished, the food began materialising across the table.

"Eat up quick. I wanna get to the common room and see how the girls are doing."

A third year student leant over the table and gave Lyo's arm a good thump. "You and those girls, Lyo. It's a wonder you're not dating them."

Before Lyo could even speak his hand shot towards a piece of chicken, tearing its leg off. His cutlery was left abandoned by the side of his plate.

He listened to the conversation eagerly between his house-mates.

"Girls?" Without his mama there he forgot to swallow before talking.

"I'lll introduce you to them when we get to the common room."

He shovelled a pile of mashed potatoes and gravy into his mouth.

"Theyre a good laugh but I'll warn you not to take much of their advice to heart." Their advice could be a little extreme at times. Lyo had laughed at it a few times.

"Just wait till you see those kiss smears on the glass," a seventh year snorted, yanking at Lyo's hair teasingly.

He wasn't quiet sure what they were talking about, but it all seemed pretty exciting.

"Why can't they eat down here? Wont they be hungry? I want to meet them!"

He wasn't quite sure why the older students started laughing at that. He didn't take it to heart and laughed along with them.

Lyo elbowed the seventh year and flicked a pea at the laughing third year.

He rattled off something in Russian and the seventh year hissed back a response in the same language, elbowing Lyo roughly in the ribs.

The two grinned at each other and the seventh year leaned forwards to swipe a quick kiss before he returned to his dinner. That got quite a few whispers going. Lyo and the seventh year ignored them as they gorged on good food.

"Gotta love those house elves."

With non of his questions answered he decided to just stay quiet and eat his food as fast as he could. The faster he ate the faster he could meet these girls. He almost chocked a couple of times in an unsightly manner.

Jace would of never dared to eat like this at home. His mama would be from from impressed, but these people weren't his mama. He felt completely comfortable around them so fast, and he already got the sense of family.

Holding his bloated stomach, he turned back to Lyo.

"Finished! Do we get to see the girls now?"

"It looks like a lot of us are finished," Lyo noted as he licke the crumbs from his last cookie from his lips.

There were a lot of first students that were sat silently, too scared to make conversation after they'd eaten.

Lyo patted Rich's shoulder as he stood, then stuck his hand up in the air to draw the attention of the people around him. "Any first years that have done with dinner can come with me to the common room."

He'd make the first common room run and let the other pefects deal with the others that hadn't finished eating yet, or wanted to stay around and chat.

Around the room, other prefects were making the same declaration. As Lyo began towards the doors, he knocked fists with a seventh year Gryffindor. "Merlins beard, you've actually grown, Aodh."

The ginger-haired, green-eyed wizard chuckled as he ruffled his long hair. "So have you. Hard to think you're only a sixth year. Though, you beat me out by third year. Thirteen and over six foot. It was crazy."

The two of them dropped into chatting to each other in Russian as they lead their groups of first years and tag-alongs out of the great hall.

Lyo waved goodbye to his friend as they split ways; Gryffindors going up and Slytherin's going down.

Jace was the first to jump up in excitement.

He kept close to Lyo. He was even more in awe of his height now they were stood up. The top of his head was only just above his waist. Each step he took Jace had to take two, and every now and then he would have to jog slightly to catch up.

He ignored his fellow year group in favour of listening to Lyo and his friend. Although he couldn't work out what they were saying.

As then split from the red-head he also waved goodbye.

"He's the son of the new DA teacher," Lyo explained as they descended into the cool dungeons. "We met when I had a little accident in broom club. He was ditching potions and caught me before I could break a bone. We've been good friends since."

When he got to the door of the common room, he turned around to face all the first years. "This is the entrance to our common room. Its protected with a password so only those with a password can get in. The password changes every couple of weeks so you better keep up. Give the wrong password and you won't be getting in."

He leant against the locked door and crossed his arms over his chest. "You'll probably see a couple of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs hanging around inside every now and again. That's normal. Us older guys have friends from other houses in every now and again."

He squared his shoulders, looking stern and a little intimidating. "Don't give out the passwod. Don't invite anyone from another house in without a prefects' say so. This is our home until we graduate. Ours, not Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws or even Gryffindors. Do you understand?"

After a long silence he turned to the door and spoke the password, loud enough for all the first years to hear. "Salazar."

The creaky doors swung open to reveal a dark room, lit with wall sconces. Large windows at the back of the commonroom opened up into the lake. The whole room was kitted out with dark wooden, leather and velvet furniture, with the occasional silver accent to lighten up the decor.

"Welcome home, kids. Boys dorms are the left doors and girls the right. Youll find your trunks already in your rooms. Go take a look."

Lyo immediately made his way towards one of the windows, dragging a wooden chair behind him when he was close enough to grab one. He knocked on the glass window a couple of times then sat back in the chair, waiting for something to appear on the other side of the glass.

"That must be so horrible having a teacher as your parent!"

He probably wouldn't of been enjoying his time as much as he was now if he knew his mama was here. He loved her but she was strict. He could imagine her talking to all the teachers know what e was doing and where he was. Not a singe thing could be kept from her.

He nodded to what Lyo said, and his year chorused a yes when they were asked if they understood.

He didn't have any worry on keeping up with the password, as long as he stuck with Lyo.

Jace felt town, he wanted to see what his new room looked like, but he also wanted to stay with Lyo.

Decision made he bounced up to the older student.

"Where are the girls?"

He looked round the common room. It was empty with all the first years upstairs.

Jace turned to look out of the window and tried to see what Lyo was looking at. He squinted then gasped.

"We're under water!"

Lyo grinned when he saw a disturbance in the shadowy water.

A loud bang echoed through the common room when something collided with the glass on the outide of the window.

Lyo's hands began moving in a series of signs as dark eyes came into view. "Hello, beautiful," he translated as his hands moved. He was speaking for Jason's benefit. "How have you been over summer?"

The merwoman screeched, then her hands began moving in response. "She says that her summer has been lonely," he spoke to Jason, keeping his eyes on her hands. "But she and her family did play with the giant squid for a time. That was fun."

He shifted to face Jason. "Introduce yourself. Do it like this." He ran through the signs to say hello and to introduce himself as Jason to the merwoman.

Jason jolted and jumped back from the window towards Lyo.

Beautiful was not how he would describe the... Mermaid? She was a lot more scary looking then how they were described in books. But she seemed harmless, and Lyo seemed to like her.

He watched their exchange in wonder. Not making sense of the signs Lyo and the mermaid were making, he was thankful for Lyo's translation.

"I never realised we could speak to the merpeople."

His signing was slow and clumsy. He still spoke as he signed, not used to communicating in silence.

He turned to Lyo.

"Was that okay? What is she saying back?"

"Rich is hard of hearing. He lip read, but most the time, we talk with sign language. He's been teaching the merfolk and us sign language since his first year. You better learn quickly. The merfolk get angry when theyre ignored. We hate it when we have to clean fish guts from the windows."

He smiled as the merwoman as she watched Jason's shaky hands. Her head tipped in the water and she pounded her fist against the glass.

Lyo laughed. "She's frustrated because you're not very good," he explained, then signed what Jason was meant to say.

The merwoman nodded and began signing back. "Her name is Maya and she hopes you get better at signing so the two of you can talk better."

He wondered weather the teachers knew about this. The few books he read said their was no way to communicate to merfolk directly.

Jason playfully stuck his tongue out at her. She really wasn't that scary then he initially thought. Though he can imagine it being quiet scary if you were down here on your own in the dark and you didn't now of the merfolk.

He gave the mermaid a toothy smile.

"Show me how to sign back: 'I hope so too'! Oh, and show me how to sign her name."