The Malfoy's Twin

Chapter 5

Altair woke up at 5 am. He was exhausted yesterday. The boy - Robert, he remembered - called a house elf who brought Al a fruit salad as he didn't want any meat. The name of said house elf was Weely. Altair never understood why people called the house elves names that were so belittling. From what Tom had told him the house elves were quite powerful if you cared about them. Regardless, after he had eaten, he went straight to bed. He got a quick look around his bedroom and saw that he had a room with just one other boy. It was alright. Though he wished he was alone, he knew it was probably impossible. As soon as he woke up he took a quick shower in the bathroom attached to his dorm room. He adored quick and cold showers, he always felt fresh afterwards. After a shower, he dressed in nice clothes, as they still had one day before lessons they could wear whatever they preferred. He chose a navy button-up shirt and black slacks. He liked wearing slacks because he could partially hide his skinny legs with them. Unfortunately, his parents didn't buy him any clothes, so he wore mainly Draco's hand-me-downs. On the other hand, Draco always made sure to keep them in good condition, and every time he went shopping with their parents he bought something specifically for Altair. He quickly put on his dress shoes and went down the tower to the common room with a book. While searching for a book he came across Tom's journal and took it with him. Once there he sat in an armchair next to a big bookcase, which he decided to rummage through later. He opened the book he took from his trunk, it was interesting even though he had just started reading it. It was a book Tom recommended to him about alchemy. The book was presumably published at the Egyptian Centre for Alchemical Studies, which was the largest centre in the world. The book concentrated on Panacea, a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely, and experiments with parseltongue. It wasn't a surprise to him that Tom would know about such a book. The book contained mentions of immortality so of course he had read it. Altair found it in an abandoned corner at the Malfoy Manor. His father wasn't into potions or alchemy at all. He really only liked politics. Back to the Panacea, the book mentioned that according to an alchemical work dating back to the 1550s, the constituents of this perfect medicine were vinegar, salt, urine, sal ammoniac and a particular sulphur vive. Altair thought it was gross. He couldn't comprehend why someone would even consider making a medicine like that. Regardless, the book was based on a volume written by Paracelsus, a famous alchemist who contributed heavily to the field of medicine and was credited with the discovery of Parseltongue. Parseltongue was a language of serpents that only those descended from Salazar Slytherin could speak and understand. For instance Tom, as a direct descendant of Salazar could speak it. Parseltongue was very rare but also very useful in rituals and magic, there was a whole branch of magic called Parselmagic that used only Parsel. The book was a collection of Libatius Borage's reflections on the work of Paracelsus. Libatius was also a famous alchemist that lived sometime in the seventeenth century. He supposedly got in contact with a parselmouth - Rionach Steward - and tested theories that Paracelsus made. It was really interesting because it was from Libatius' point of view. He described how it was to listen to parseltongue and even wrote that to some extent you could imitate it.

"Hiya! What are you reading?" Altair got a little scared because he was so engrossed by the book that he didn't notice Robert coming down the stairs to the common room. "When did you wake up?" Altair glanced at a watch from Draco, he never took it off, and saw it was already 7 am. He looked up at Robert and saw that he was dressed in black jeans and a claret T-shirt. Altair decided that Robert had definitely too much enthusiasm for his liking. He raised an eyebrow and slightly closed the book to show the title. Of course, it was charmed to show the title of the first-year book "Magical Theory", not the actual title "The experiments with parseltongue and panacea". Parseltongue wasn't really accepted in the wizarding world. "Ohhh, I see, Professor Flitwick doesn't require first years to read the book beforehand, but I fully understand. And what's that on your lap?" Altair got a little confused, he didn't remember taking something else from the dorm room, but then his eyes landed on Tom's diary. He quickly diverted his eyes from it and gave Robert a hardened look. "It's not my business is it?" He asked rhetorically with a grin on his face. The Malfoy heir only scoffed at that and got up from his seat. He looked around the common room and sighed, it was nice, he decided, maybe he could grow happier about being a Ravenclaw after all. "It really is nice isn't it? How did you sleep? Was it alright?" Altair nodded at that, he didn't expect to sleep this well without Draco, but something about the room made it pleasant. "I always found the sound of wind whistling around the windows of the tower relaxing while going to sleep. You should know that we - the Ravens - have the airiest of the four common rooms. We should probably head down to the Great Hall if you don't want to eat with the whole population of Hogwarts." He informed while winking. Altair was stressed, he suspected that his brother was already awake and heading to breakfast as well if he wasn't there already. He was scared that he wouldn't want to talk with him. And Tom... He would have to find some room that no one knew about to get into the diary. "Come on, don't just stand there. You look as if someone just got killed, smile or something for Merlin's sake." Robert grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the exit. Al quickly took his hand out of the grasp and stopped. He adjusted his shirt and gave Robert a disapproving look. He wouldn't be seen like that by anyone if he had a say in it. He gracefully left the common room and started walking at a pretty fast pace, while not losing his grace at all. He didn't stop even as he saw that Robert was still standing in the doorway. The brown-haired boy quickly ran to catch up with Altair and they soon reached the Great Hall. Upon entering Altair's eyes immediately went to the Slytherin's table and he saw that his brother was indeed there. He looked to be engaged in a conversation with Blaise, he seemed very happy. "Well he probably doesn't want to talk to me right now." Altair thought and fairly quickly diverted his eyes to the floor, he didn't want to admit it, but he was scared Draco would be ashamed of him. He sat down at the Ravenclaw table in a way that he could see Draco's back. He put food on his plate and, as Tom had taught him, wordlessly checked it for charms and potions that could affect him, while lightly touching his wand. He mentally punched himself for not doing it yesterday in the common room. He found that there were no hurtful spells on his food and slowly started to eat. He decided to eat oatmeal, it was purely out of curiosity. The elves at Malfoy Manor rarely had time to bring him sumptuous dishes for breakfast, as they had to serve at the official breakfast for his parents and Draco. After tasting it he thought it was a bit bland. He looked around the table and reached for raspberries. He decided that it tasted much better with them and that gave him the idea that he would like to try cooking. One more reason to find a secret room. Just then from the corner of his eye, he saw that Daphne was pointing at him from her seat, she sat next to Blaise, who sat opposite Draco. Altair quickly put down his fork and looked at his lap, he didn't want to see the disgust he feared in Draco's eyes. After a couple of moments, he felt a poke in his ribs and glanced to the side to see a grinning Robert.