The Serpent and the Lion [L.S]

Chapter 1

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There is very little in the world that Louis loves more than the smell of freshly trimmed grass on the pitch.

With a deep breath, he takes in the wide expanse of gorgeous green field before him, broom in hand, realizing just how lucky he is to be standing here. Here, starting his final year at Hogwarts—as impossible as it may seem.

Louis can recall exactly how he felt the first time he stood on school grounds, suppressing the gasp that had caught in his throat as he stared up at the jagged spires of the castle; he'd never seen anything so extraordinary in his life. It was almost funny to think of now, how he must've looked to all the returning students—just a wide-eyed, Muggle-born boy who couldn't even begin to comprehend what he was in for.

In fact, for the longest time, Louis thought the concept of magic and a school for wizards was all part of some elaborate joke that was being played on him. 

It all began with the very first letter. It was the fanciest thing Louis had ever seen, with his name printed on the front. It was made of crisp parchment paper and secured with a crimson wax seal, addressed to him from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Perplexed and excited, Louis read the contents of the letter, and immediately crumpled it in a white-hot rage. What idiot thought he would believe this rubbish? Louis tossed in the bin, dismissed it as a weird prank from one of his classmates. He gave no more thought to it, and went about his life as usual.

Until two days later.

When he found another crisp envelope perfectly placed on the mat by his front door, addressed to name yet again, Louis frowned. The crest printed in the wax seal looked even more phony now, the more he looked at it, from this Hogwarts place. A serpent, a lion, a bird, and a... Badger? He rolled his eyes, wondering why anyone would be so dedicated as to continue on with the same foolish joke, and the letter found its way into the bin.

The weeks after were quite hellish, as Louis began to find letters in places a letter should not have been.

In the medicine cabinet in his bathroom. Under his pillow. In the refrigerator under the milk.

Inside his guitar case? A letter. In his school bag? Another bloody letter!

If Louis had stopped to think about it, the logic of how they could possibly be getting into those places would be a more important question, but he never stopped to think. The letters weren't making him curious, they only irritated him; but he was determined not to let anyone get the best of him by blowing up over some joke. (Louis prided himself on his impossible stubbornness, after all.)

No, Louis was never quite convinced, not until a strange woman in a hideous brown suit and wildly unfashionable woolly hat came knocking at his front door all the way in Doncaster. 

They were sat on his couch, in his perfectly normal living room, having a wildly abnormal conversation.

"You've always believed yourself to be a bit different, haven't you?" The woman had asked knowingly, her eyes soft and sweet. Louis had obviously never seen this woman before in his life, but there was something about her... Something unexplainably familiar that he knew he could trust.

"This is impossible!" Louis sputtered, gawking at the woman, his mind being properly blown with every word she spoke. "How can you say all this with a straight face? Did somebody put you up to this?"

She took his disbelief in stride.

"Have you ever been able to do things, Louis? Things you could never quite explain, that you've never shared with anyone for fear of being called mad?"