When the party finally came to an end, Regulus let the Slytherins out before him, taking care to time their entrance into the common room until after the seventh-year prefects had given them their usual chat.
Regulus let the door to the common room open on his cue, dark robes shimmering behind him as he entered. The other year's classes had already gone to bed, having received this speech just as they were starting.
"They are all yours, Professor Black." Adonis Greengrass gave him a sharp nod.
"Thank you, Mr. Greengrass," he said, inclining his head. "I'll take it from here.
There were eleven first years in the 1991 vintage. Crabbe and Goyle, a classic pair. Davis, a half-blood with a defiant jaw. Greengrass, some sort of cousin to Adonis, who sided with Davis. Bulstrode, another half-blood" was a huge scandal for her family. Parkinson, who had a smirk on his face. Nott, a skinny boy with a skittish look in his eyes. Zabini, who stared at him coldly, unmoved.
And Draco Malfoy, his godson, had a proud smile on his face as he was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Regulus had worked hard to be present in Draco's life, carefully walking the line between not upsetting Lucius, who still seemed to be clinging to his beliefs and trying to steer Draco away from blood purism and Death Eater rhetoric. The boy had learned not to spit slurs in his presence, but he couldn't vouch for his behavior when he wasn't around to steady his tongue.
Not a success, certainly. But not a failure; not yet. He wouldn't give up on Draco - he wouldn't let him go down the same rotten path he had walked down, with no one caring or believing differently enough to show him a different path until finally he nearly died to escape it. Draco would have at least one alternative.
"Hello," he began, his voice soft and low. "I'm Professor Black and I'll be head of your house for the next seven years.
"You were sorted into the great Slytherin house." We are known for our cunning and ambition; I hope to see these traits demonstrated in all of you. You are the future of our house, do Slytherin proud. Stand out in class, take care of your housemates, and most of all, don't get caught.
He waited for a few seconds, letting them understand his words.
"You may have heard that since I took over from Professor Slughorn as Potions Master and Head of House, I've been taking Slytherin in a different direction." His eyes swept over them, gaze sharp. Slytherin gathers like a house in the common room. Sometimes I speak, and sometimes the monitors lead tutoring sessions; this differs from week to week. Unless you have a valid excuse, I hope you're there. Lastly," he said, trying not to let his eyes linger on Draco too long, "I hope you're on your best behavior with the other houses too," when some of them opened their mouths to protect, he added, "unless they antagonize you first. At this point, as I said earlier, don't get caught.
This seemed to ease some of the students' complaints.
"If I hear you slander and treat others with discriminatory disrespect, I will be very disappointed. Do you understand me?
"Yes, Professor," they agreed, although he noticed that some of them looked less than pleased.
- Good. Sleep well. See you on Friday for our first class together.
Regulus settled into his favorite armchair and folded his hands in his lap. His godson noticed, waiting until everyone had gone to bed and shooing his lackeys before approaching him.
"I trust you will be well prepared for class?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Of course, Uncle Regulus," he replied, tilting his chin up.
"Remember that you must address me as 'Professor Black' in class." Draco hurriedly nodded. Her niece Adora didn't follow through so well in her day.
Regulus gave him a piercing look.
"Do you need me for something?" I noticed you wanted to talk, but there wasn't much talk.
The boy was straight as a stick, fingers twisting at his sides.
"I didn't know you had those meetings at home," he finally said. "And these...extra things."
Regulus sighed.
"You may find the content of some of these meetings quite illuminating," he said. "And as for the 'extra stuff,' remember that I'm not going to show any favoritism. Not all rules will bend to your will, Draco. The name Malfoy can only take you so far.
Draco's jaw tightened, but he gave a stiff nod.
"I am aware, Uncle Regulus," he said. "Good night."
- Sleep well.
The week went by with the same level of normal chaos that has existed in every first week of school for as long as Regulus can remember, well, or nearly as much as before, everything has gotten a lot more chaotic since the arrival of the Weasley twins at school, and now without her two older brothers to control " minimally " those two, anything could happen.
Regulus continued to hear about Potter from all sides, inside and outside his classroom, everyone was fascinated by the presence of "The Boy Who Lived", he couldn't exactly judge the others so, for the most part, the students listened talking about him almost like a fairy tale, unfortunately, Harry Potter is a real person, an 11-year-old who has a lot of expectations of him. Personally, as someone who has suffered from this all his life with the expectation of others, he sympathizes with the boy.
Of course, the fact that he was the son of Lily Evans and James Potter - ignoring everything that happened in the war - he would already have a lot on his shoulders as a student.
Regulus had been busy with his subjects and his students, he had a cauldron blaster from third-year Ravenclaw, it's never fun to have one, and after two years he hoped that young Lennette would have become more careful with potions, he was wrong again. With that, he will have to take Potions classes again this year, serving these students"slightly bad, or terrible"two nights a week. Within a week there are already two potential other Hufflepuff students to take these classes.
When Friday finally arrived he was satisfied with his week, more so than his first week of school nearly ten years ago at least. There were no problems, except for the first year still getting used to the school rules, especially the new Slytherins with their wings out for the first time in their lives.
His first time teaching the first years was on Wednesday with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff being as good students as he had hoped for newbies, the real problems arrived on Friday, when he taught Gryffindor and Slytherin classrooms together, because these schedules continue to be made that way. Even with less conflict between the houses, the rivalry did not die, it was just attenuated, this does not apply to first years who had their whole lives before preaching about such rivalry.
He enters the room after the students are seated in groups of four around the various tables.
"Good morning class, everyone get your journals because the first thing I'm going to do is say all the rules and never mention them again, but just so you know I WILL be taking points," said Professor Black wearing black pants, a white shirt with a brown leather apron.
Arriving at his desk he turns to the class.
"Now that you're going to learn proper magic, I guarantee everyone in this classroom will abuse their newfound power. Rule number one, wands will be put away unless I say otherwise." Professor Black said, chalk moves by itself writing the rule on a board " The next thing you should know is that when people tend to focus on work, a mess isn't going to help the situation, so rule number two, clean up any mess you create.
"Now then, I want everyone to put on their gloves, prepare the cauldron, pull back their hair; we're making potions today," Professor Black said as the students hastily started putting on their gloves and waiting for further instructions.
As smooth as could be expected, with no racist slurs being exchanged, no attempts to dress up other people's cauldrons
" Of course, most didn't know how to do destructive spells, but they're still children " Yet, to their particular chagrin, two students managed to destroy a cauldron, Finnegan and Longbottom blew theirs up, they both looked so scared, and Longbottom so guilty that all Regulus could do was let out an inward sigh before wiping everything up with a flick of his wand and finally dismissing the gang.
Harry Potter was on a summary, just one more student. Contrary to what he imagined - as much as he tried not to create expectations about the boy - he didn't seem familiar with almost anything about his subject, with the Weasley boy and Miss Granger even explaining something to him. Potions could just be something he never bothered with before, most kids weren't the patient type to learn that subject. Still, if it weren't for his appearance "almost a ghost of his father" there would be nothing remarkable about the boy.
Thank Merlin that he didn't have James' ego, he thought at the end of the day.