ตอน 3: Death and Domain - Chapter 3

Want to read ahead of the chapters here? Consider supporting me and get access to up 10+ advanced chapters: patreón.com/theliarspath

xxxxxxx

Professor McGonagall was still mid-rant when the school bell signaled the end of class. Her lips pinched at having to stop. She seemed to have been enjoying the long lecture for the Slytherin duo.

"You two will stay here and actually finish the assignment for now," she told Cassius and Justin coldly before turning to face the other students. "The rest of you go back to your rooms and make sure to be ready for the end-of-year feast."

I followed the wave of students on their way out, only stopping to throw Cassius and Justin a last triumphant look over my shoulder when I got to the door. After a few minutes of having Minerva McGonagall breathing fire over them, Cassius was scowling at me the way I imagined a death row con glares at his prison guard. Fierce, sure, but it was an impotent thing. His fury clearly tempered by his bleak future.

And Justin, big as he was, looked no more intimidating—and probably not any smarter—than a wounded puppy. His shoulders were all hunched over, his skin ruddied from his neck to his hairline in a mix of shame and anger.

I had to hold back a laugh. Seeing them now, I doubted they would be wise enough to stay away from me after this clear defeat. Teenagers rarely had the judgment to know when they were outmatched.

A hand on my arm stopped me. Isaac had been waiting for me a few steps away from the door. Quickly looking around, I realized I had enjoyed looking at the fruit of my efforts for too long, and the hall outside the Transfiguration classroom had emptied of most students.

"What?" I asked.

"What?" Isaac mocked, chuckling. "Just what? You can't just pull something like that out of nowhere and not expect me to be curious."

"I think the results speak for themselves, no?" Isaac and I weren't confidants as far as I knew. We were class buddies, to be sure, but you wouldn't find us huddled up together telling each other's life stories and secrets.

"Sure they do, but you could throw me a bone," he said. Eyes narrowing, he then took a step closer, as if to speak in confidence. "You do know that was a declaration of war, right? Because that's what they will see it as."

Good. "Let them."

And it wouldn't be my last either, of that I was certain. Becoming Octavian didn't change that deepest part of me that would never stop fighting for my place in the world. And in my mind, the only place for me was at the top. Hell, I even had the advantage of outside knowledge now. And though there were more forces at play here than in the Harry Potter world that I knew, I still had no intention to watch from the sidelines as greater and bolder men put their names down in history.

It just meant there were more uncertainties on my way up the ladder; but then again, nothing good ever came easy to me. I had to claw my way out of the depths of misery to get where I was. This world wouldn't be any different.

"That was just my first move," I told him.

"And when they come back with the second?" he asked, appearing genuinely curious. He was testing me. He wanted to know if I had the will to see this through.

I smiled. "By then I'll have flipped the board so far out of their reach there'll be nothing they can do to hurt me."

Isaac let out a surprised laugh, shaking his head after a moment to gather himself. He let the silence hang in the air for a moment longer. "I don't expect you would tell me if I asked you what changed?" he finally said, looking at me like he had already figured out what my usual answer to these types of questions would be.

"Not in complete sentences, no." I paused for a moment, then decided a bone being thrown here wouldn't be the worst thing in the world in this situation. Allies would be required for the life I was slowly planning out for myself. "But you would be the only one I would admit that, yes, something did happen, and that something changed everything".

The corner of Isaac's lips gained the slightest of curves. "Can't say I imagined you suddenly turning interesting, but—"

"That is, indeed, very interesting." I recognized the voice instantly, as posh and refined as they come. My headache flared up.

The door to the Transfiguration classroom clicked open a second later, and I cursed under my breath. Isaac and I were speaking low enough that no one even on this side of the door would've heard us, but that didn't account for magic. A listening spell wouldn't be impossible for a fifth year to learn, and this was not just another fifth year student. It was all the more aggravating considering I knew the muffliato spell.

"However." Celeste Black stepped out from the room in all her future Dark Lady glory, followed closely by her own version of Crabbe and Goyle in the Carrow twins, Flora and Hestia. "Coming from you, Octavian, I can not say I expect very much. You are aware that hitting your head because you are too clumsy to get out of bed on your own does not count as a life changing moment, aren't you?"

Through the years, I'd become very confident in myself and who I was as a man. But honest to God, I was dreading this moment. Celeste had always been the girl to Octavian, ever since they were children playing in the dark halls of Grimmauld Place or in the Prince family manor. Now that she'd grown up, though, all long legs and dark hair and haunting eyes… Well, the boy had no chance.

And like I expected, some remnant of Octavian's feelings still gripped my heart at the sight of her. The way her lips curled in a mixture of distaste and amusement was almost too much. My legs felt wobbly beneath me, blood rushing to my head. If I opened my mouth then and there, I would have stuttered.

It would be a cruel joke for the bane of my new existence to be my 'vessel's' boyhood crush. So I stomped down on those feelings with extreme prejudice. I had no place in my heart for teenage romance.

I forced myself to smirk through the throbbing in my temples. "Do you often think of my bed, Celeste?" The words came out with an effort, but that made her pause.

She frowned, her head tilting ever so slightly to the side. She was offended, but she thought she'd just misheard me. Five years of looking at me as nothing more than a worm underfoot weren't so easily wiped away. I had to push further if I wanted her to truly believe I'd changed.

"You've seen it before, and nothing much has changed. It's definitely bigger, though. Fit for two, now." I nodded toward the twins. "Even four, if they are interested."

That did it.

Her furrowed brows climbed up as much as her jaw slacked down. In that moment, the traditional Black-heiress upbringing failed her, bright red blossoming on her cheeks. I couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment. Beside her, Flora and Hestia let out a comically synchronized gasp, though Hestia had to put a hand over her mouth to cover the snort that followed.

I thought of going the subtle route, slowly changing personalities to fit my own without drawing too much suspicion. I gave up two minutes after leaving the bathroom. Even the way Octavian walked was all wrong, hunched over and weary of every little shadow.

I wouldn't last five minutes playing that role. Better to get it all out of the way and blame it on the low-hanging fruit that was magic. It was the perfect excuse, seeing as you could always appeal to its more unknown nature.

Seeing a subtle shift in Celeste's posture, I spoke up before she could say anything. "Just a joke, Celeste," I said, letting an easy smile come to my face. I tried it in the bathroom mirror and it didn't look half-bad. "We should go get ready for the feast now, but if you want to reconnect, find me during the summer. We can talk about it then."

Then I put a hand on Isaac's shoulder and steered him away, double-stepping until we had ducked through a couple corners. That innuendo had been a little too much, and considering I wanted to keep my balls attached to my body, I didn't want to push Celeste to the point of wands being drawn.

She was Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter after all.

xxx

"Alright," Isaac started after we slowed our pace from near running to a comfortable walk. "That was…" He coughed into his hand. "Maybe you're becoming too interesting for me."

I let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, that didn't go quite like I wanted either."

We were making our way to the dungeons, the heels of our shoes rapping loudly against the stone underneath. The first floor of the castle, as much as that could be determined given the weirdness of the passageways and moving stairs, seemed to be deserted now that classes were done and preparations for the feast had begun. Most students would be at their dorms now.

I stopped us at the next intersection of halls. A small inner courtyard sprawled to our left, while the double doors in front of us led deeper into the castle. The passages there wound down to the dungeons where the Slytherin common room and the Potion's classroom were located.

I needed to go somewhere else.

"What was that about Celeste Black knowing your bedroom?" Isaac asked, glancing around us to make sure no one was within earshot. He seemed curious as to why I'd stopped, but even more intrigued about my interaction with Celeste.

"Nothing like that." I waved a hand. I didn't know Isaac to be a gossiper, but the last thing I wanted was for rumors like that to start. Celeste would kill me in my sleep. "We were close friends when we were kids, that's all."

An eyebrow lifted. "I've never seen you two together in Hogwarts… and I have a good memory."

"We shared a cabin the first year," I hit back.

Isaac just looked at me flatly, and I sighed.

"It's true, but then I became who I became in this school and suddenly we weren't friends anymore." I raked a hand through my hair. "That's about it, really. This was the first time we spoke to each other in years. She even avoids being in group projects with me during classes."

A thoughtful expression flashed through his face for a second, then he said, "Oh, that's right. I remember her making a big fuss of allowing for a group with three students in Defense, second year, when everyone else was in doubles. She finished that assignment with the Carrow twins, didn't she?"

Nodding, I hooked a thumb toward my chest. "And guess who ended up alone?"

"Ah." Isaac gave me a weak smile.

I just shrugged. Celeste Black would have been a great ally to have in this world. She came with the full package of talent, money, and connections, all wrapped up in a girl that was as pretty as they come. Except she had already shown her true colors, and the wound in Octavian's heart wasn't something I could just ignore.

I thought I could, but I was dead wrong. Just being near her sent my mind whirling. More than growing up without a mother, his shitty relationship with his dad, and the five years of bullying he endured, it was Celeste's betrayal that had hurt Octavian the most.

She'd never full-on bullied him like the other kids in Slytherin, but the snide comments and disdainful looks were there. And considering Octavian idolized her as much as he loved her… well, it had broken him.

Honestly, it was beyond irritating to have these feelings forced upon me. I wish I could just wipe them away and start anew with her. Bringing Celeste into that fold was just that advantageous. However, while I wasn't beneath some old-fashioned back-stabbing, that's something you save for acquaintances and business partners. To friends? True friends, as Octavian and Celeste were back as kids?

No, I couldn't forgive her. It was a matter of principle, really.

But that didn't mean I shouldn't go along and rekindle their relationship. I could still use her. She was the Heiress Black, and that name carried a lot of weight in the wizarding society. And since she'd broken the friendship bond we had, I would have no remorse when the time came to double cross her.

The thing is, thinking of Celeste brought more than just bitterness and old, fond memories mushed together. She was a living, breathing red flag of this world. One of many, sure, but she was perhaps the one closest to me beyond Octavian Prince's own existence.

Here, Bellatrix Black was not languishing in Azkaban for torturing Neville Longbottom's parents to a vegetative state. Oh, she had committed those crimes here too, but instead of reaffirming her loyalty to Voldemort as she did originally, she'd plead imperius like Lucius and the other Death Eaters who escaped justice.

My first thought was that she'd done it because she had a daughter waiting for her at home; but having met Bellatrix several times as a kid, motherly love wasn't the first thing that came to mind when I imagined her motives. She wasn't insane like she was after her stint in Azkaban, but she was still intense and incredibly demanding.

Her husband, Celeste's father, however, had not forsaken their master and still rotted in Azkaban to this day. Her name was really Celeste Black-Lestrange, but after the first few students brave enough to call her by her father's last name ended up in the hospital wing, everyone else had made the conscious decision to stick to Black.

The question was, why all these differences? Why did Octavian Prince and Celeste Black exist? Where in the timeline did a butterfly flap its wings for all these changes to be borne? My own family, which was barely mentioned in the books, had some form of renown in society, at least in the past. In previous centuries, among the darker circles of society, our family had been rather renowned for our knowledge of a questionable and often unknown branch of magic concerning the Soul.

Of course, considering my grandfather died young and my father—Flavius, was an unrelenting idiot, Octavian grew up knowing nothing about it beyond the fact that we did hold that knowledge within the family at one point.

With my own knowledge of Horcruxes and how they relate to the soul, however, that little fact became much more relevant.

Isaac's voice broke through my thoughts. "So… should we go back to the common room, then?"

"Hm?" I looked up at him, and he glanced at the double doors. "Oh, right. You go ahead, I have something else to do."

Isaac's lips thinned into a line for a moment, but he just nodded. Curious or not, this was already more than we had ever talked before, and he clearly didn't want to push it. Smart of him. Being inquisitive was one thing, but nobody liked a nosy bastard.

Without another word, Isaac turned and headed toward the dungeons. His steps echoed behind him until he'd started down the flight of stairs.

A deep sigh escaped me when I couldn't hear him any longer. The easy-going demeanor I had going on slipped away like a veil. The pounding in my head had only gotten worse, and it had taken a lot of self-control not to have a permanent scowl etched onto my face. It wasn't sharp enough that I couldn't think, but the chronic throbbing left me rattled.

Something about it felt strange too. It was unlike any other migraine I ever had. It felt alive, reactive, in a way. It wanted something, and knocking against my brain seemed like it was its way of reaching out and asking for it.

Luckily, I knew just the place where I could shut myself in and figure it all out.

I stumbled over the last step onto the landing just as the stairs started moving beneath me, only to be immediately assaulted by the sun. On the other side of the hall, orange light blazed through from an expanse of colored glass. It shone against the landing like a halo. I groaned, covering my eyes with an arm and staggering against the railing.

The urgency of the headache had increased as I crossed the castle, hammering against my head in shorter intervals like a time bomb until it become nearly unbearable.

Tic-toc, it seemed to say. Better get ready 'cause I'm coming.

Asshole!

Bright lights didn't really help either. Blinking away dark spots in my vision, I let my arm down and came face to face with the sheer drop to the ground floor of the castle. Vertigo punched me in the stomach, and I gagged. I almost missed the slugs then and there.

Thankfully, much like the rest of the castle, the seventh floor of Hogwarts was empty of students, and I was able to limp my way down the hall after some slaps to the face. The tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy hung opposite an empty expanse of stone just as I remembered from both my lives.

Octavian had found the Room of Requirements on accident once, trying to escape a few older Slytherin students during his third year when they'd gotten particularly ruthless with a prank. He didn't know what it was at the time, of course, but it had come in handy now. Knowing that the entrance to the room was here from my book knowledge and knowing where it was exactly were two different things, and I would need to remember not to depend on my outside knowledge too much that I was caught flat-footed over it.

I floundered not so much as I paced three times in front of the empty wall, until it finally opened. I didn't ask for anything fancy, just a breezy room with a comfy bed. I wanted to try and do some more magic more than anything, but I don't think I could even mouth words right now.

The moment the back of my head hit the pillow, it happened. The headache vanished as if it never were, and in its place something else popped up in my mind.

Welcome to the Domain System!

Gain bonus powers for every domain under your rule—either directly or indirectly. The quality of the powers obtained through the system depend on the domain's relevance to you and the world. This applies to domains beyond physical locations.

Ex: Becoming the head of your household (Family Domain).

Conquering a state (State Domain).

Being promoted to regional manager of your local paper supply store (Paper Store Domain).