Disclair:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 40: Dinner Party
"I'm a bit nervous…"
Jas watched as Lily adjusted her dress again.
"It's just a dinner reception with other students and one professor. There's nothing to be nervous about," Jas told her.
It was Sunday night, and Slughorn had given them invitations to his first dinner party of the year. Since they had both been invited to attend, Jas suggested Lily co with him, and she happily accepted.
"The most distinguished students in the entire school will be there…" Lily said.
'Distinguished was not one word I would use...' He knew that Slughorn's intentions with these parties was to create connections with students who he deed would beco influential in the future so he could then make use of those connections for his own benefit. But he rather not tell Lily that.
"And you are one of them," Jas reminded her. "You're not here as anyone's date, you're here because your talents have been noticed."
During his original childhood, he had often heard his professors speak highly of his mother. They frequently talked about how smart and brilliant she was.
After personally eting this young version of Lily Potter, he could already see that those comnts were quite accurate. Despite only being in her fourth year, she had shown trendous potential for magic. This was very easy to see for soone such as him.
Lily felt her cheeks heat up at the simple complint. "Thanks..."
The two of them walked up to the sixth floor and opened the door to Slughorn's office.
Jas heard Lily mutter a comnt about being late when she saw that all the other students were already there.
It wasn't too crowded, but Jas counted eight more people, plus the professor himself.
"Ah, Mister Potter and Miss Evans are here. Please, take your seats, and then we can comnce," the professor invited them in with a warm smile.
This ca in contrast to the expressions on the other students' faces.
Bellatrix had arrived accompanied by her fiancé, Rodolphus Lestrange, who was staring at Jas as if he were ready to jump out of his seat and rip his head off.
Now, Jas wasn't sure if this was because Rodolphus had seen him walking closely with Bella or because of the way he had defeated their Quidditch team the other day.
There had been a lot of talk after that match. His use of potions to blind the enemy seeker had been called out, but ultimately, it wasn't specifically against the rules, so it was allowed. However, Jas was strongly advised against using such thods again.
Bellatrix seed to be avoiding glancing at him altogether, and he couldn't bla her for that. Her fiance seems like the jealous plus violent type. A terrible combination.
Perhaps there was another reason for her avoidance.
Jas considered for a mont if she was trying to protect him from her jealous fiancé's wrath by pretending he didn't exist, but then again, maybe he was giving her too much credit.
Next to them were Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black as his date. Lucius was much better than his friend at pretending to be courteous, but the coldness in his eyes couldn't be hidden.
There were two more couples that Jas didn't recognize, but they wore the colors of the Ravenclaw house.
'They do look sowhat familiar, though,' Jas thought as he observed their facial features.
"So now we're inviting students based on their sports accomplishnts?" Lucius comnted. "If you can even call that…an accomplishnt."
"Oh, not at all," Slughorn responded. "When I invited Mister Potter, I wasn't even aware he played Quidditch. Seeing him in the other day's ga was quite the surprise."
"Hmph! Who says he can play? He just won with a dirty trick," Rodolphus scoffed.
"According to the rules, it was not an illegal move," one of the Ravenclaw boys said. "And if I recall correctly, Slytherin did its own share of dirty tricks that day."
He was a young black man with a kufi hat and blue robes. He was definitely a senior student, perhaps in his sixth or seventh year.
"They did! Poor Brian Jones spent the entire day in St. Mungo's getting his bones fixed," Lily added.
Rabastan reacted to this. "The Mudblood got what he deserved," he said, making sure to say it while looking directly at Lily.
"Now, now. Let's keep this polite, Mister Lestrange. We don't use that word here," Slughorn scolded him, though he still kept a soft tone. "And let us move away from Quidditch."
"I can agree with that," the black Ravenclaw student said, looking toward Jas. "And I am personally curious about Mister Potter's presence here, if it's not Quidditch-related. I thought I knew about all the most outstanding students in Hogwarts."
"Oh, I have recently discovered that Mister Potter has quite the unusual talent for potion-making. He has shown very outstanding results so far, and I am looking forward to what he can accomplish in the future with those skills," Slughorn told him.
"Potions…" the young man muttered. "If I recall my lessons in the history of magical families correctly…the Potters have produced many notable potion masters and alchemists in the past. But many generations have passed since then."
"Then perhaps it's ti for another one," Slughorn said, making a gesture with his wand. Several drinks and snacks appeared on the table. "Help yourselves to whatever you wish."
"I don't see any firewhisky here," Rabastan frowned.
"You want to get drunk in front of a professor? Idiot," Bella huffed.
"What did you call ?!" Rabastan was already starting to lose his cool.
Lucius hurried to put a hand on his shoulder and whispered sothing in his ear.
Lestrange glanced around the table and seed to calm down a bit after that.
Slughorn cleared his throat. "My apologies, Mister Lestrange, but I'm sure you'll understand that I cannot serve alcohol during a student dinner party."
The event only lasted a couple of hours, and they managed to have a mostly polite conversation during the whole ti.
Rabastan barely spoke after his first outburst, and Bellatrix seed to be in a bad mood. She didn't say a single word to Jas and wouldn't even look in his direction.
Jas and Lily mostly spoke with the black young man, who he then found out was none other than Kingsley Shacklebolt.
He shouldn't have been surprised to find this person here. Shacklebolt had always been a very talented man, and if things went the sa way, he would one day beco the Minister of Magic.
But what surprised him the most was to learn that the other Ravenclaw boy was Gilderoy Lockhart.
He personally rembered that Lockhart had always been a terrible student, and his later accomplishnts were all thanks to his unusual affinity with mory charms, which allowed him to take credit for other, more talented people's achievents.
Jas decided to keep an eye on Lockhart to make sure he wasn't doing anything nefarious at school.
The dinner party ended, and Jas made sure to escort Lily to the common room afterward.
It was only as he was exiting the room that Jas finally caught a glimpse of Bella staring at him while Rabastan was distracted speaking with Lucius.
Her lips were locked into her usual frown, but Jas saw sothing else in her vibrant purple eyes.
'She looks sad,' Jas thought.
A.N: - Rember to comnt, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the ti. Those things help a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can Support on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters. You can also find characters images to view for free in Collections/Invincible Stage Images
-/Kriogenix
Reviews
All reviews (0)