Now We Speak With Ruined Tongues [open]

[scorpiusmalfoy]

Scorpius lounged in one of the vast leather armchairs that littered the Slytherin common room, one leg draped casually over the arm and a charms book in his hand. Lounging was something the Malfoys did well, and even if Scorpius wasn’t a typical Malfoy, some things just came naturally to him. Plus, he had appearances to keep up - he didn’t want people to know he wasn’t a typical Malfoy. There were some things his pride just wouldn’t allow. And even if he didn’t quite admit it to himself, there was part of him that enjoyed the farce, all the sneers and haughty looks, even if deep down he didn’t really mean them. Or maybe even deeper down, he did.

Thinking about it made Scorpius’s head hurt, so he tended to engage in other activities, such as lounging around in armchairs pretending to read charms books. Anyone who knew Scorpius would realise straight away that he wasn’t actually reading it - the boy hadn’t studied for a test in his life, and yet still got infuriatingly good grades. In fact, Scorpius’ mind was entirely elsewhere, as it so often was, thinking up scenes and scenarios, sometimes entirely fictitious, sometimes based in reality. There was rarely a time when his mind wasn’t itching to dream.

Scorpius sighed and tossed the book to the floor - a gesture that once had to be carefully orchestrated but these days came almost instinctively. He yawned and stretched out his limbs like an indifferent cat before reaching over and picking up another book from the table in front of him. Unlike its predecessor, this one bore no name on the front, and the pages inside were mainly blank. Every now and then a few words were scrawled in thin spidery writing - things like “Remember - see Longbottom on Tuesday” and he occasional “Gryffindors Suck!”. Scorpius wasn’t the kind to leave his innermost thoughts and feelings lying around for just anyone to see, but a quick touch of his wand and a mumbled incantation brought the pages to life.

Flicking to the back, Scorpius ran his hand over the page where he’d spellotaped a photograph. He, about 7 years old, his father and his mother stood in a formal pose wearing their best dress robes. The younger him waved whilst his mother fussed with his collar. Draco, however, remained impassive. Scorpius remembered when the picture had first been taken his father’s image smiled out from it, now his expression was unreadable. It was enough to make him start welling up, and he slammed the book shut and chucked it angrily back onto the table. He though perhaps of going to the Owlery to calm down, but decided he better regain his composure before he started walking round the school.

[thaniel]

Thaniel wasn't allowed in the dorms but he was eager to see the Slytherin Common room again. It was the last place he kissed Lumina before Christmas break but he was pushing those memories far, far down in his mind. He wanted to forget her and all she meant to him.

Entering the common room, he did glance over at the chairs in the corner where Lumina was sitting on his lap and tickling his chin that night before she went home. Between them, they exchanged some hot whispers and promises of what would happen the next time they saw each other again. It was all the bad things people say to one another before they part ways and something awful happens to one of them. Never tempt fate. It's always looking for a chance to knock you down.

The common room was below the lake. He wasn't in the water but he could feel weaker down here. While in the water he couldn't touch things and that was extremely alarming. His own fingers were numb when they touched each other and reaching out to grab something was hopless. As it was, his feet were feeling that numbness. Luckily, that was all.

Thaniel saw one boy in the common room. He wasn't going to greet the boy unless greeted first. Instead, he delicately touched the binding on a book as he read the title. The book was about jobberknoll care. It was most likely as dull as it sounded.

[scorpiusmalfoy]

Scorpius sighed and ran a hand through his already untidy blonde hair. That was one thing he’d never been able to get down to a Malfoyish perfection - his hair. He could comb it as much as he liked, but it always ended up in a mess again. This was probably because of all the time he unconsciously ran his hands through it, but Scorpius really couldn’t care much less about what his hair looked like. As long as he could talk the talk, his hair could be magically spiked on end and his privates covered only by a loincloth made from the skin of a house elf and no one would bat an eyelid.

Okay, so that was probably an exaggeration, but Scorpius had to think of something to keep his mind of the book that was now lying where it had landed on the wooden coffee table next to his chair, and, more importantly, what the contents of that book symbolised. He felt ruffled - that was the second book he’d thrown in the space of less than five minutes, it couldn’t be a good sing. He needed to get his Malfoy veneer back up before anyone noticed anything.

Unfortunately, just as he thought he was beginning to regain his composure, something happened which made him drop it all again - a ghost floated into the room. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have provoked any kind of reaction, but this wasn’t the bloody baron, it was someone else entirely. Curiosity piqued, Scorpius turned to look fully at the newcomer, pushing himself out of his seat and waling over, the teats in his eyes dwindling to a dull glisten as he distracted himself.

“If you are looking for reading material” He said conversationally, looking over the ghosts shoulder as he inspected the contents of one of the many book cases, though careful not to get too close - he didn’t want to feel like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water over his head “Might I recommend A Vampire’s Monologue? I think Lestoat is highly undervalued as an author”

[thaniel]

"Oh. Thank you." Thaniel tried to look as if he wasn't holding his breath and just waiting to be spoken to by a Slytherin. It felt good. No jokes. No laughing. No hateful remarks about how dare a Slytherin get himself treated like a pincushion.

Thaniel took that book off the shelf and gave it a quick look over. Thaniel had seen loads of the muggle ideas of vampires but he wanted to remember the truth about them. He'd only fit back into wizard society better if he started reading.

It was ever so faint but the whole composure of this Slytherin suggested that he was important. A pureblood, probably. In life, Thaniel had always worked hard to please them. Back then being a half blood wasn't fun in the Slytherin house. You constantly had to stay on your toes and know your place well. Even with Lumina who was pure blood from head to delicate toe but she loved him anyway. He knew it but part of their relationship had been based on putting up appearences. The more they acted like they hated each other, the more passionately they loved each other.

"I'll give it a try. As I understand it, Hogwarts has a bit of a vampire problem. This could come in handy. Not that a vampire could actually hurt me." Thaniel actually couldn't be a 100% sure about that. Maybe it had been tested while he was biding his time haunting muggles. Maybe he shouldn't assume anything until he'd done the research.

However, Thaniel, being Thaniel, kept his head high and kept talking to promote himself. He was never one to stop digging his own grave. He ought to have learned from that. "I dare any vampire to have a go at my neck. He'll only get frostbite."

[scorpiusmalfoy]

Scorpius felt a little twinge of- of something when the ghost thanked him for his recommendation. It had been an entirely flippant remark - A Vampires Monologue was a terrible book, some even said it had been written by Lestoat to bore victims into a stupor to make them easier to bite. But this boy had thought he was being serious. Perhaps he should have known better. Judging by what he was wearing, the boy had died about a century ago - perhaps people didn’t tend to be so ironic in those days. Or perhaps he’d just never heard of Lestoat.

Scorpius was a little surprised when the boy took the book off the shelf - most of the ghosts at Hogwarts tended to avoid human things, apart from peeves, but his only interest in them was finding someone he could hurl them at. He’d thought that the boy was looking at the books because there was little else to do, but he actually did intend on reading them. How curious.

The ghost’s defiance against vampires brought a smile to Scorpius’s lips. He’d never really thought about how things like that might affect a ghost. He’d heard the rumours about there being a vampire inhabiting the Forbidden Forest, he’d even read the Aparecium article that suggested it was Professor Connery - which he’d then laughed at - but it was true that the divination professor was off sick… he didn’t like to think about it too much, really, and he supposed he would be safe, as long as he didn’t go anywhere near the boarder to the Hogwarts grounds. Of course, thinking like that really didn’t help his ego, so he pushed it to one side and concentrated on the conversation

“Sounds like our vampire has met his match” He replied evenly, trying not to give any of his private thoughts away in the way he spoke “But I can assure you, there are no vampires in the Slytherin common room. It’s the Gryffindors that have to worry.” Back to the casual, offhand comments.

[thaniel]

"Dear me. If I find a Gryffindor lurking in here he's getting tied to the Slytherin crest with his pants down around his ankles." He hoped that wasn't too harsh. Since Gryffindors were the ones who sort of walloped Slytherin back in the day Thaniel only assumed there might be some residual feelings of contempt and the boy did just make a joke about them. Then again maybe it was sarcasm. He was poking fun at the irony of it too. Maybe--

Thaniel had to stop over thinking it and actually get to know the Slytherin before him. He was just trying to figure out where he stood with them. This was so hard. 100+ years of isolation with muggles had warped his brain a bit.

"Thanks for the book. I'll probably have it done by tomorrow morning. It's not like I sleep anymore. I need something to do rather than listen to Nearly Headless Nick chatter away about his existance. I think he believes I want a mentor or a friend and that person ought to be him."

[scorpiusmalfoy]

Scorpius was momentarily taken aback by the ghost’s comments on Gryffindors. What had prompted that? Well, he had just mentioned them himself, but it was a passing comment about a ridiculous article in the school’s gossip magazine, was that enough to set this guy off? Maybe he hadn’t realised Scorpius was being flippant - did ghosts even read magazines? They seemed to read books, so he didn’t see why not, but then again-

It suddenly occurred to him that the ghost could have been being just as flippant as he was. Why was he over thinking this situation? Every other thought he had seemed to be a question, but he supposed that was probably a natural reaction when confronted with a ghost, especially a new one, around his age, he presumed, who’s suddenly floated into his common room. Then again, he could be simply trying to ignore what had just been said about tying Gryffindors half naked to the Slytherin crest. He wondered for a moment if female Gryffindors would receive the same treatment, but pushed that thought from his mind.

He was disinclined to believe, however, that his new acquaintance’s remark had been serious - or completely serious, at any rate, when he spoke up again. Someone who thanked people for advice on which books to read didn’t exactly sound like the bloodthirsty type. Or Scorpius liked to think they didn’t. He sounded more, sort of, well, lonely, really, Scorpius thought. Hell, you had to be lonely if you were going to stick around to listen to Nearly Headless Nick talk at you.

“Well, just tell him there’s much better company in the Slytherin common room.” Scorpius replied, letting one of his customary grins slip onto his face. He hoped the other boy didn’t read too much in to him not making any reply to his apparent plan for Gryffindor trespassers, at least, not as much as he’d read into the original comment himself.

[thaniel]

Thaniel gave the boy a straight up and down look over. He'd successfully struck up a conversation with the boy and so far there was no animosity. Thaniel felt he could continue without any fear that the dead Slytherin would be treated as though he were unworthy and something to be laughed at. That would have killed Thaniel all over again to be taunted by the very people he was hoping to be accepted by. Ghosts should be beyond that kind of peer pressure but not Thaniel.

The boy had striking white blond hair and Thaniel had some suspisions about that. While in the Ministry he'd heard the names of Weasley and Potter but other names also made there way to his ears. After 24 years the events and people connected to the battle of Hogwarts were spoken of as if they'd just happened.

"I could tell Nearly Headless Nick that but I'd have to phrase it differently. Trust me on this, you don't want him trying to be your best friend/mentor/adoptive father figure. I have no doubt the old guy means well but he's a dreadful bore."

Thaniel glanced down at his shoes for a moment then ventured to ask what he'd been wondering. He wasn't sure how the question would be offensive but he dared himself to ask nonetheless. He met the boy's eyes again. "Are you a Malfoy?"

[scorpiusmalfoy]

Scorpius found himself feeling very self conscious as the boy looked him up and down, almost as if he was inspecting him, looking to see if he was good enough or not. He supposed, perhaps, that that was the way things were in the ghosts time - but then again, it wasn’t uncommon for people in his house to do that, generally to members of other houses, but sometimes to one another. Hardly anyone tended to do that to him, they just saw his pale hair and pale skin and said no more, but then he supposed things might have been different in the other boy’s times, whenever they were, maybe it wasn’t such a searching thing to look someone up and down, or maybe he hadn’t heard of the Malfoys. Scorpius knew his family history went way back, and they’d always been quite influential, but the wizarding work had functioned differently in the past, it was quiet easy that any Malfoys that were around at that time could have been overlooked by anyone from a different part of the country.

Scorpius snorted, at what the ghost said. The way he spoke was just so strange - he even sounded old fashioned. “Sorry, sorry” He said, offering the boy an apologetic grin, hoping he hadn’t thought that Scorpius was laughing at him “It’s just it’s so true, and the way you said it… I guess the Gryffindor don’t have any luck, eh?” He paused for a moment, then continued “I’m not sure about mentor or father figure, seeing as you’re probably about a hundred years older than me, and I have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be a ghost, but friend I can do” He smiled again, a little unsure what to do next. Normally he would have offered a hand for a mock handshake, but he guessed that wouldn’t exactly work with a ghost. He didn’t usually offer friendship so openly, at least, not in so many words, but this boy seemed so astoundingly alone, he’d kind of said it without thinking.

Ah, Scorpius thought at the next question, I guess he has heard of us, then. Maybe that explained more than he wanted it to “For my sins” He confirmed flippantly, a slight smirk on his face “Let me guess, it was the witty banter that give it away, right?” He hopped that the ghost hadn’t continued talking to him just because of what he suspected his last name to be - in spite of himself, Scorpius was fining the newcomer increasingly interesting, and hoped that the feeling was somewhat mutual, beyond whoever his ancestors might be “And who are you?” He asked, trying to sound casual “I’m sure that’s much more interesting than who I am - you probably know the history already, anyway.”

[thaniel]

After 100 years of isolation from other wizards, Thaniel had probably lost some bit of class he used to have. He'd been exposed to muggles who were forward, rude and savage in their ways and all of it had rubbed off onto Thaniel. He know regretted asking the question of this boy but at least he said they could be friends. That meant so much to Thaniel. The most influential boy at Hogwarts didn't find Thaniel a joke at all.

He laughed at the boy's joke. He had Thaniel's sense of humor. Thaniel could easily see they would find the same things in common. At least, he hoped they would. Thaniel had to make sure he was watching for the politics of Hogwarts these days. So much had changed and that had work in his favor. Half bloods like himself stood a chance.

"There's not much to tell about me. I was a Slytherin. Died a Slytherin. I spent most of my existance in London. I'm actually glad to be back here among civilised wizards. I will need a friend to help me learn what is new around here since my time. 1913 was drastically different." He chuckled. Of course it was but he wanted the boy to understand the scope of how much Thaniel needed to learn.

"Consider me your student. Anything you have to tell me would be a great help. I hope that I can find some way to be useful to you." Thaniel would be indebted to Scorpius in any way Scorpius wanted him to be. The Slytherun boy now had his own personal ghost at his bec and call and Thaniel was more than happy to please him.