The Shadow of Slytherin

The dragon, the crow and the...

Laughing, a cool wind blowing against you, Alec grabs your shoulders, the books left on a table and walks with you, up a flight of stairs in direction of the glass dome, but makes a turn to the right and down another corridor that leads into a cave-like room. It has stone walls, rough, textured with moss and ivy growing on it, wet stone, some water dripping off the ceiling into puddles where tiny fish swim.

It looks right out of a story book, the beautiful plants growing to either side of an overgrown glass door that stands wide open. Silver fish, shimmering in different colours when the light that shines through small crevices in the stone walls hits them.

Intrigued, you step forward, over stones that build a loose bridge over a small river, but then you halt and turn to see where the river leads, and stand in awe as the river turns into a waterfall that rushes down to a pond where three more streams part and surround the great hall of the RoR. All along the sides where the water touches the wall, flowers grow, and bees, butterflies and fireflies flatter about, the colours shimmering in the light that shines through the glass ceiling.

"This is beautiful" Your eyes wander to Alec, who stands behind you, watching as you inspect the small crevices from where tiny creatures come and crawl along the walls, some you have never seen or heard of, then a few lizard like creatures with blue and orange spines, some with green or red shimmer on their back, blinking as they move, they hush over the ivy vines to a branch that grows from the great hall towards the smaller ones on the side. "Who thought of all of that?"

"I guess we did" Akira says, leant against the wall where water drops onto his shoulder, but he ignores it and stares at you as well, amidst the beauty of the cave. "Ey, Alec, you're drooling" he snickers catching the continuous stare of his friend while you walk on in direction of the glass doors.

"Sip it, Foxtrot" Alec hisses, moves out of his frozen state and walks over the stones as well, halting before the glass doors of the vivarium.

The arm stretched out, Akira holds Alec back while you continue walking the bridge to the other side where an overgrown gate of glass shields something from your view. "Are you sure about this? There is no going back"

"Someone has to carry out our legacy, right? And let's be serious, what harm can this do?" Alec pats him on the back, then pushes him through the doors into the darkness of the vivarium.

His eyes rolled at Alec's remark, Akira sighs and follows his friend. "If they are anything like you or Atticus, a lot"

Deeper through the dark, Alec walks ahead with his wand in hand, the lights guiding him through the darkness while you stride on without struggle towards something farther along the path on a wall. A drawing of a dragon, a crow and some more animals.

"What is all of this?" You ask, your face shielded by your hand when Alec waves his wand in your direction.

The head shaking at your response, he snorts and approaches the wall as well, "I will never understand how you can find anything in complete darkness, you're just like Atticus" His eyes rest on you as you shrug your shoulders. "Anyway, this is our secret, our true secret" The head nodded to Alec, Akira gestures towards a bench and after you have had a seat, he drops beside you, the back leant against the wall. "Alec, the stage is yours"

Licking his lips, Alec winks at you and steps back, "Wanna see something cool?" He asks, spins around, then jumps back and in a sudden swirl of colour, he grows so much in size, you move back, the cold stone pressed against your shoulders as you watch the giant creature before you. Cold creeps into your shirt as it soaks with the humidity and water from growing moss, leaving a green stain on your clothes.

A dragon, the eyes as grey and bright as those of Alec, with a ring of green around the edge of the iris, the scales in bright dark red and black that grow lighter towards the wings where they become almost golden. Then his body shifts and the wings begin to glow red at the edge, blue veins following along the wings to the centre of his body. The dark spines on his back in red and black, as the scales on his head grow darker.