Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 1: Theodore Nott and the House of Seven Gargoyles

19 June 1993 at 5:00 pm
Nott Manor
Nottinghamshire, UK

A soft pop accompanied the arrival of Theo and his father at the family's ancestral manse. Lord Nott strode brusquely towards the manor house, but Theo paused and looked up towards the foreboding building. He had lived here continuously from the day he came home from St. Mungo's as a baby until the day he left for Hogwarts on September 1st of 1991, save for a few rare social functions. Indeed, had there not been an unusual number of children his age born into families politically allied with his own and with whom he was expected to hobnob, Theo might never have seen another child before getting on the Hogwarts Express. But he had been gone for almost two years, and Nott Hall seemed different. It was certainly as dreary as he'd remembered, but Theo now had the oddest feeling that it had ... shrunk somehow. Shrunk and become less imposing than it had been on the day he left for Hogwarts.

The gargoyles, however, were every bit as big and fearsome as he'd recalled. There were seven of the beastly things arranged at odd intervals around the house. Theo had seen gargoyles in books and knew what ordinary gargoyles looked like on Muggle structures. He'd actually been surprised to learn that they were usually mere functional ornaments – water spouts designed to funnel rain off of the roofs of medieval buildings and which had been decorated to look like deformed people or animals for aesthetic reasons. The gargoyles of Nott Manor, however, were statues with no functional purpose.

Well, no obvious functional purpose. Before she died, Theo's mother had warned the young child repeatedly never to play outside of the house without either her or Alex or one of the kinder house elves as chaperones or else "the gargoyles might get you." After she'd died and he'd gotten older, Theo eventually decided that there was nothing dangerous about the stone statues and that his mother wished him to stay in the house at all times for some other disturbing reason most likely related to his father. But Theo had become a wizard since leaving Nott Hall albeit only a young one, and his studies both at Hogwarts and under the brief tutelage of Lucius Malfoy had taught him to reexamine his childish assumptions.

The gargoyles were all identical. Each was a short but stocky four-legged beast that looked vaguely like a cross between a lion and a small bull with thick barrel chests and crooked horns extending out of a rough mane. He studied them now with senses that he'd not possessed when he left for Hogwarts and which he had only begun to refine. And those senses told him now that his earlier childish fears had been correct. There was magic in the seven gargoyles. Magic and hunger and also an inexplicable yet terrible rage that was only restrained by their stony natures.

"Theodore!" Lord Nott called out over his shoulder. "Don't dawdle. We have much to talk about."

Theo's head snapped towards his father in surprise, but the man had already turned back around and headed on towards the house. He honestly couldn't remember the last time his father had used his actual first name. Usually, it was "brat" or "little bastard" if not something worse. Theo picked up his trunk and followed after the older man, now studiously avoiding the gaze of the seven gargoyles ... if not their attentions.

Once the two were inside, Tiberius called for a house elf. "Rogo! See to young Master Theodore's trunk. He and I have matters to discuss in my study. Send refreshment when you are done."

The hunchbacked house elf bowed deeply and then silently limped over to Theo's trunk. The boy recalled that Rogo had once accidentally spilled coffee on Lord Nott's trousers during breakfast about five or six years before. The next day Rogo had a limp that hadn't healed in all the years since, and he rarely spoke again except when ordered to. But he'd also gotten a lot more attentive when serving hot beverages, so Theo imagined that his father thought it a fair exchange. There was a soft pop and both Rogo and the trunk were gone.