Spectre: The Dark Riddles #1

8: Hippogriff*

[Chapter Warning: smut, violence]

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"They're proud. Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

--Professor Rubeus Hagrid teaching his Hufflepuff class about hippogriffs, 1993

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The Forbidden Forest is big. I've been going to Hogwarts for six years now, and I still haven't seen every part of it. I don't know if any of the students have. But Theo leads me through the trees and over mole hills until the party is just a distant, steady pulse of indistinct music. This is the part of the forest that touches the lake. It looks so different at night, almost spooky.

This entire night has been spooky.

I turn on Theo. "What just happened? What were you and Mattheo Riddle arguing about?"

"You." He looks like he's contemplating punching one of the nearby trees.

"Why did he... do all of that?" Why would a Riddle concern himself with me?

"Because the world is fucked, and you're fresh meat. Because you're an easy target and the Riddles aren't happy with the Malfoys right now. Because he can. I don't know. I don't pretend to know half the shit that goes through that guy's head."

"You said... you said you're... claiming me?" I swallow, pacing between two large oaks. "What does that mean?"

Theo pauses, glancing at me long enough to realize I'm not joking, that I truly don't know the answer to that. "Draco really has been keeping you in the dark."

My patience ebbs away. If one more person points out how ignorant Draco has made me, I'll scream.

He moves towards me, explaining, "The Slytherins are divided into three groups."

I nod. That part, at least, I know. "Yeah—the Riddles' Inner Circle, Draco's friends, and everyone else."

"The third group doesn't really exist. They're just..." He rolls his eyes. "Those people are looked at as fresh meat. If you're one of the unclaimed, then you don't belong to either group. You have no alliance with either side. You can be swayed to join either Draco or the Riddles, and until you make your choice, any amount of harassment is warranted. Once you're claimed, you're protected."

Initially, it sounds ridiculous. The thought of my twin holding so much power over something so cultish... it just doesn't sound real. But there have been moments in the last few years when I've caught glimpses of a different side of the Slytherin House. Proof that, for however close I think I get to those students, I'll never be on the inside, and therefore never know the depths of Slytherin's secrets and games.

I frown. "Is... is that what happened to you?"

Until Fifth Year, Theodore Nott hadn't existed. Not for any of us. But after he spent a summer with my family in Italy, once he befriended Draco, his name started popping up in more conversations amongst students and staff alike.

He looks out at the lake. "I knew about the groups, but I thought I could skate under the radar. But no Slytherin survives to their Seventh Year without picking a side. Draco made it clear to me that summer between Fourth and Fifth Year that I'd have to pick, and soon. So I picked your brother. Figured it was the lesser of two evils, or something."

"And now..." I swallow. "Now you've claimed me."

His anger seems to have melted into something... softer. The emotion in his blue eyes is still just as intense, but it lacks that dangerous level of heat I'd witnessed just a moment ago. "Now I've claimed you."