When Asterion continued to eat, Daphne and Tracey sat on both sides of him, preventing certain girls from getting close to him.
Pansy clenched her teeth, watching this, the bread she was holding practically twisted in her hands. If the bread were conscious, perhaps it would lament its sad fate. It wasn't enough to be devoured; it had to suffer such torture.
"Good morning," Daphne greeted him, kissing his cheek, the cold expression she usually wore around everyone seeming surprisingly kind at this moment.
"Good morning," Asterion greeted her back, even Tracey, who sat on his left side.
"I heard you were talking to Dumbledore at the Slytherin table," Daphne asked curiously. Tracey also listened with great curiosity.
"I called him for a conversation, the conversation was at least... enlightening," he replied, falling silent for a moment as he speared the sausage with his fork.
Though it seemed like a simple divergence of ideologies, it was something deeper; that conversation meant Asterion and Dumbledore had no possibility of cooperation in the future.
Dumbledore was content with the current system, where everyone maintained a fragile balance, keeping the entire society in relative peace. But for Asterion, it was the opposite. The Ministry of Magic had to cease to exist for him to control the entire British magical society.
To create the god that the House of Black envisioned, the entire island of Great Britain had to be in his hands. In other words, Asterion would dismantle the existential order and establish a monarchy—a constitutional monarchy, to be more precise.
Absolutism wasn't suitable; centralized power in one person would only bring more problems than benefits. As Arcturus had mentioned before, the foundation of a society lay in the interests of the people.
Daphne didn't ask any further, noting her silence; Asterion would tell her something if necessary.
In addition to conversing with Daphne and Tracey, Asterion also spoke with the first years sitting near him. Surprisingly, he found it somewhat pleasant to converse with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. Both showed respect for him, but they discussed interesting topics rather than typical teenage matters.
"I heard your mother got married for the fifth time, Zabini," Theodore, a handsome boy with black hair and brown eyes, asked, looking at Blaise with a curious smile.
Blaise, a very handsome black teenager, just groaned in frustration at his friend's question. "Yes, my former stepfather recently passed away, so she got married again."
"How did your stepfather die?" Theodore continued to ask with a mischievous smile on his face.
Blaise's mother was a beautiful and very charming woman, well-known in aristocratic circles for her marriages, which always ended with her as a widow and a substantial amount of gold filling her coffers.
With so many deaths, everyone naturally suspected that the woman was killing her own husbands to inherit the rich estates left by them. However, the Ministry of Magic's investigations always determined that they were accidental deaths or due to illnesses, sometimes even natural causes in some cases, dismissing suspicions against the woman.
The Ministry placed great importance on such cases; after all, it involved the inheritance of wizards, something quite delicate in England.
Despite such a reputation, the line of suitors for the woman was surprisingly long; everyone thought it was just simple bad luck.
"He fell down the stairs and broke his neck," Blaise replied with a slightly disgusted expression, as if remembering something very unpleasant.
Everyone around found the situation quite amusing; there was no denying it, Blaise's mother's husbands were indeed unlucky.
Seeing this, Blaise just sighed and said nothing.
Breakfast ended with Asterion, Daphne, and Tracey leaving together; class was about to begin.
Blaise and Theodore didn't try to get too close to Asterion, avoiding making the teenager feel uncomfortable with their sudden proximity.
…
The first class of the day was Transfiguration in the morning.
Entering the classroom with Daphne and Tracey by his side, Asterion quickly glanced at the teacher's desk and saw a cat staring at him with a gaze that closely resembled Professor McGonagall's.
"Why is there a cat in the classroom?" Tracey murmured to herself as she tried to pet the cat, but to her disappointment, the cat skillfully dodged her hands with surprising grace.
"Don't run away, I'm a good person," Tracey persisted. As a cat lover, she refused to let a feline go without any affection.
Asterion, sitting in the back row of seats, watched the whole scene with an amused look dancing in his eyes. It wasn't every day that he would see the strict Professor McGonagall evading a student.
"She hasn't noticed yet," Daphne said, her tone tired, as she sat beside Asterion. Under the table, her hand found his, intertwining their fingers.
Asterion looked at her with a puzzled expression but didn't comment on her actions.
Observing this, Daphne couldn't help but feel a deep admiration for her mother. The woman certainly knew how to win someone over.
To any casual observer, simply holding hands wouldn't be anything extraordinary for betrothed couples, but initially, Asterion had been reluctant to even sit close to her. It wasn't out of dislike or for any other reason; her fiancé simply didn't feel comfortable around strangers, including herself, his fiancée.
After sharing the situation with her mother, Helena tasked Daphne with a mission: to approach Asterion cautiously. First, she was to let him get used to her presence, subtly getting closer to him and touching him until he became accustomed to her touch. She did this for months, until finally managing to touch Asterion without him looking at her with coldness.
Daphne had to admit that the routine was quite eerie; when you're accustomed to something, you hardly notice when that something happens. Even the inaccessible and indifferent Asterion Black wasn't immune to this.
"Let her be, at least we can have some fun watching," Asterion replied, looking at Tracey chasing the cat around Professor McGonagall's desk.
Seeing that she couldn't pet the cat, Tracey noticed that the class was about to begin, with more and more students arriving. Determined, she looked at the cat, promising herself that she would pet it in the future regardless of what happened.
Seated beside Asterion, as she had promised Daphne, she occasionally gave fleeting glances to the cat.
Rose and Hermione almost arrived late but finally entered before the appointed time. Unfortunately, a certain red-haired boy wasn't so lucky.
Ron, who had just entered the classroom sweating, sighed in relief to see that the teacher hadn't arrived yet. However, as he prepared to sit down, the cat on the teacher's desk suddenly transformed into a middle-aged woman dressed in emerald robes, shocking all the students, or at least those who recognized the cat's identity.
"Mr. Weasley, you're late," she said, addressing the boy with a gaze capable of intimidating any unruly teenager.
"I got lost, Professor," Ron tried to explain, gaining some relief as he saw the teacher's expression soften slightly. After all, it wasn't uncommon for a first-year student to be late with Hogwarts' numerous confusing staircases.
"You'd better not be late again, or I'll turn you into a pocket watch," she warned the boy with a cold look.
McGonagall looked at the class with seriousness, her gaze briefly stopping at the frightened Tracey, but she continued after a brief pause.
"Before we proceed with the lesson, I must inform you that Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and dangerous branches of magic. A simple mistake can turn something harmless into something perilous. Therefore, while you're in my class, I demand absolute attention, or I won't hesitate to expel the inattentive for an entire year," her stern voice carried seriousness and authority, leaving almost all the students nervous; some even straightened up in their seats.
As she noticed the entire class listening attentively, a look of satisfaction gleamed in her eyes, and she continued.
"Transfiguration is the art of shaping matter with your will and determination."
While Professor McGonagall taught the basics of Transfiguration, in the back of the classroom, Tracey complained to Daphne and Asterion.
"You didn't tell me about Professor McGonagall!"
"Believe me, it was hilarious to watch you try to pet the professor," Daphne said with a mischievous smile on her lips, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
"How cruel, Daph. You're getting more sadistic spending time with Asty. You weren't like this before," Tracey said resentfully.
Asterion just rolled his eyes at the nickname. Tracey was the only one who dared to call him that. It was something he obviously allowed, given that he had known her long enough and she helped him keep the girls from getting too close to him.
Believe him when he says that teenagers are surprisingly annoying. Every time he attended a ball over the years, he found himself completely surrounded by girls, something that particularly annoyed him, as he had a slight dislike for the touch of strangers.
"It's better to focus on the class; the professor has already started to notice your whispers," Asterion murmured discreetly to the girls while keeping his eyes on the lesson, efficiently taking notes of Professor McGonagall's words. He would never let the words of a Transfiguration master like Minerva McGonagall, who had won several international awards, pass him by.
Daphne and Tracey stopped their discussion and focused on the lesson.
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Author's Thoughts: How was the first class? I don't know if McGonagall's personality was good, did I make her too severe?
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Next Chapter:, Chapter 47 - Classroom (3), Chapter 48 - First Class of Defense Against Cursed Spirits (1), Chapter 49 - First Class of Defense Against Cursed Spirits (2), Chapter 50 - Request (1), Chapter 51 - Request (2), Chapter 52 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (1), Chapter 53 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (2), Chapter 54 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (3), Chapter 55 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (4), Chapter 56 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (1), Chapter 57 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (2), Chapter 58 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (3), Chapter 59 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (4), Chapter 60 - School Council, Chapter 61 - Mission (1), Chapter 62 - Mission (2), Chapter 63 - Mission (3), Chapter 64 - Mission (4), Chapter 65 - Mission (5), Chapter 66 - Consequences of the Attack (1), Chapter 67 - Consequences of the Attack (2), Chapter 68 - Invasion of Hogwarts (1).