Short Stories and Oneshots

Powerful Men

Author: Lomonaaeren 

Platform: fanfiction.net

Type: Harry Potter

AU. Tom didn't know whose idea it was that a mysterious man who had walked out of the Veil of Death should be the guest lecturer for Defense Against the Dark Arts while Professor Merrythought dealt with some kind of magical emergency, but he could thank them. And curse them. Henry Evans changes Tom's life.

~

"He couldn't really have walked out of the Veil of Death. I mean, not really."

Tom says nothing, but listens to the bickering behind him as they walk to Defense Against the Dark Arts. In truth, he's reserving judgement himself until he sees what the mysterious stranger can actually do.

But Abraxas, precisely because he's a Malfoy and a pure-blood and the last name of this 'guest lecturer' proclaims that he's not a pure-blood, has already made up his mind. Ina snotty tone, he's discussing how there's probably no such thing as the Veil of Death, that the Unspeakables would never release their secrets in such a way.

"Don't think I don't hear you snickering back there, Lestrange. I say they wouldn't."

"And I'm sure they always do exactly what Abraxas Malfoy tells them to," Rex Lestrange says, making Tom's lips tremble a little with a hint of a smile. Lestrange is too much of an upstart for his tastes, but he can be an amusing one.

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"That's an admonition you could do with some obedience to yourself, Malfoy."

The Slytherins come to Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom that way, and enter it. Tom looks around without much interest. The new lecturer doesn't appear to have made his mark on the classroom yet. It looks exactly the way it usually does when Professor Merrythought is teaching, with shrouded mirrors on the walls that can show them illusions of dark creatures and landscapes where they're found, and old maps that demonstrate the location of ancient battles.

Tom sits down in the front, and he hears the other Slytherins arrange themselves behind him. The Gryffindors walk through the door a few minutes later. Tom ignores them. There is only one really good duelist of note in that bunch, Charles Potter, and he's learned not to challenge Tom.

Tom is reliving the victory when the door opens again, and the most powerful man he's ever seen strides in.

It's not that the man wears his magic swirling around him like a cloak; some people do that, but it's considered crass in pure-blood society. It's not the way that the whole class falls silent at the sight of him. Tom could do that if he wanted to, and even the Gryffindors would obey him without being sure why.

It's the way the man strides, his head up and his green eyes coolly surveying the far corners of the room. It's the way that he turns around when he's near the desk and folds his arms so that his muscles bunch against his sleeves. It's the confidence he projects, so quiet and heady that even Abraxas doesn't try to challenge him.

"Good morning," the man says, his voice like distant thunder. "My name is Henry Evans, and your Defense professor has asked me to fill in for her while she deals with a human transfiguration that didn't go as well as she'd hoped. Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

The man's recognition of Abraxas' last name appears to have given him confidence, and Abraxas drops his hand and sneers. "Why should we listen to you? I don't recognize your last name. I don't know where you trained. Professor Merrythought is at least an experienced teacher."

Tom wants to shake his head. Abraxas is stupid for not having recognized what Tom has already. Well, either that, or he didn't sense it at all.

Tom wouldn't be surprised about either. Blood prejudice is a useful tool for him to wield, but he doesn't subscribe to it.