Harry Potter: Instant Kill

As we waited for people to filter into the carriages, Daphne asked me, "Can you see them?" She paused while taking in our confused faces before elaborating, "The Threstrals that pull the carriages?"

"Yes, I can see them. When my Grandmother passed, I was with her." I said receiving a small hand squeeze in return. Daphne then turned her head to the twins to see if they could see them, Grace took the liberty to answer for both, "We can both see them." 

Her reply may have been simple but the looks that crossed both twin's faces were anything but, they conveyed so many emotions in such a short time. A small silence settled over us as we approached the carriage only for something weird to happen, all the Threstrals suddenly looked towards me and gave a deep bow with their heads tucked into their chest area.

The few people who could see them and were not in our group looked shocked at the simultaneous movements before looking towards where they were bowing, that is where I found myself. Threstrals bowing to me and people staring at me as if I decided to wear a clown costume.

Eventually, we managed to avoid those wanting to know what happened and ducked into an empty carriage but that didn't spare me from the questions as it was Grace's turn to ask one, "What happened there? Why did they bow to you?"

I was lucky due to the fact that I didn't need to answer and her brother did his best impression of Professor Snape's sneer and said in a decent impression of the man, "I thought you were meant to be smart. It is clearly due to the aura he has about him, they could probably sense it like I can."

Rolling her eyes Grace retorted, "I could guess that idiot, I was just wondering why his aura would cause them to bow." She paused after her question for a breath or two before sighing, "I suppose that impression was very good though."

I finally took this opportunity to impart an opinion of mine to the three of them, "Well, this may not be completely factual but in my opinion, since they can only be seen by those who have witnessed someone pass on, they must have some connection to death or the realm of spirits. Due to this, I believe that they are familiar with the entity or energy of death and therefore due to my deep resonance with death that produces this aura of mine, they mistake me for an elder of their species or another creature that has lived in that realm for a while."

The thoughts that I shared caused the trio to sit silently for the entire journey to the castle due to them slowly digesting them and compounding on them inside their heads while trying to prove or disprove them.

The short walk from the carriage to the entrance hall was similarly quiet not because people were thinking but because we had run the topic dry and were content with the small silence that fell between us. We said a small farewell to Harry while crossing the entrance hall to the great hall since he would be leaving to sit with his fellow Gryffindors.

Sitting at the Slytherin table we were inundated with greetings and topics of conversation from the Slytherins we sat near, this continued until the first years were led into the hall by Professor McGonagall. A small yawn escapes from me as the sorting ceremony starts with McGonagall reading the first name, I lean in and whisper to Daphne, "Would you mind if I took a small nap on your shoulder until the end of the sorting?"

She didn't respond verbally but instead pulled my head down onto her shoulder and placed hers on top while still looking at those being sorted, It didn't take long for me to drift off.

As usual, the sorting hat sang a song about the houses that I thankfully wasn't awake to be annoyed by, before it started to do its appointed job and decided on the houses of the new students. There was a surprising lack of students sorted into Slytherin but those who were sorted into the house were muggle-born stirring a lot of surprise from the other houses.

It wasn't until the food had been summoned onto the tables did Daphne tried to wake me from the power nap I was having on her very comfortable shoulder, "Erik, it's time to wake up else you'll miss the food." She whispered into my ear while giving my head a light rock by shrugging her shoulder.

Slowly opening my eyes, the first thing, I saw was Daphne's beautiful eyes, "Hello Beautiful, has the sorting already finished?" My words elicited a deep blush from Daphne and a chuckle from Grace who saw the interaction. "Yes, the food is already on the table." She said while serving herself some roast lamb to distract from the embarrassment.

There was little conversation while Slytherin ate but the noise level in the hall was still high due to the boisterous counterpart that was the Gryffindor table, "I think they are trying to deafen us from the other side of the hall," I say to Daphne while serving some roast potatoes, steak and vegetables.

Nothing else of note happened for the rest of the evening as we ate, walked to the common room and went to sleep. Since it was a Friday that we rode the Hogwarts, we had the whole weekend free until lessons started on Monday.