The Seventh Olympian

Written By J.C. Vascardi

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Chapter Nine

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1 September 1991…

After the standard start-of-term announcements, which included that the Forbidden Forest was, in fact, forbidden and that anyone not wishing to die a most painful death should avoid the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side, Professor Dumbledore told the prefects to start leading their houses to their dormitories.

Of course, it was only the first years who actually needed to be shown to the dormitories as the older years could find them without help. Thus, only one prefect from each year actually did this duty, while the others headed to the Prefect's Lounge—located across the hall from the Prefect's Bathroom—for relaxation and a continuation of the meeting with Head Boy Plato Meadowes and Head Girl Bianca Zabini that started aboard the Hogwarts Express.

The prefects were given the duty of escorting the first years this year were Percy Weasley for Gryffindor, Storm Weasley for Hufflepuff, Ursula Welch for Slytherin, and Micheil and Finlay MacDougal for Ravenclaw. Many incoming first-years had never even met their prefect escort, but the same could not be said for the first-year Ravenclaws.

Obviously, Morag MacDougal had met Micheil and Finlay, since her father was their granduncle. But, Stephen Cornfoot, as the heir of Grand Duke Quentin Cornfoot, had also met the eldest sons of the King, as had Kevin and Hermione through their friendship with Hadrian.

The latter of whom knew the twins potentially better than even Morag since they'd been communicating via charmed journal nearly every day for the last four years. Hadrian was glad that if he had to be in a different year than Darius, at least he already friends there. He was also rather looking forward to being able to physically talk to the twins, instead of just writing back and forth.

At least all the years of doing so had ensured that Hadrian's handwriting was very neat and clear. Something which his professors would no doubt appreciate.

The prefects from each house held the first years back in the Great Hall until all of the older students made their way out, to ensure that they didn't lose track of any of their young charges among the throng of older and taller students.

Of course, some were easier to spot than others, as Micheil and Finlay definitely had no trouble finding Hadrian, while the same could be said for Percy being able to find Neville. Their Claimings putting them in the ninety-fifth percentile for their age meant that they were both easily spottable among their peers.

"Okay, now, first things first," Finlay said. "For those of you who don't already know me, I'm Finlay MacDougal," and pointing at Micheil, he added, "And this my brother Micheil."

A black boy raised his hand and at Finlay's nod, he said, "I'm Oliver Rivers. Why do you have two heads?"

"You're muggleborn or muggle-raised, I assume?" Micheil asked, and Oliver nodded. "Finlay and I are conjoined twins."

Nodding, Finlay added, "You will notice that in the magical world, they're far more common and you're much more likely to see them. We're not the only set attending Hogwarts at the moment, so you're likely to see others."

"The way they're connected may be different," Micheil said, "but you will see them. I know in the muggle world, most such twins are separated. Now, obviously, for Finlay and me, that has never been in the cards, because with only one body between us it would be impossible for either of us to survive the attempt."

Oliver nodded in agreement. "Okay, but what about other sets that aren't as closely connected?"

"You'll find that it's considered taboo to even think about separating conjoined twins, let alone actually doing it."

Grinning, Finlay said, "Yes, we're far too valuable."

"Why?" asked a black girl with long black hair.

"Sally-Anne Perks, if I'm remembering correctly?" asked Micheil, who had paid close attention during the Sorting so that he'd at least know the names of all the new first-year Ravenclaws. The girl nodded and smiled, indicating that was indeed her name.

"Well, Sally-Anne, you see, it's like this," Micheil said, and then went on to explain why with some interjections by Finlay.

Because of this explanation, they were the last group in the Great Hall. Something which was commented upon when the diminutive Professor Flitwick came over and asked, "Is everything all right, Messrs. MacDougal?"

"Yes, professor," Micheil said. "Finlay and I just took a moment to explain about conjoined twins in the wizarding world for the muggleborns or muggle-raised, as we figured they were probably curious for obvious reasons."

"Ah, of course," Flitwick said with a smile. "Yes, you're the only conjoined prefects in your year and probably the first set some of them have ever seen. In that event, five points each to Ravenclaw, for an excellent bit of teaching."

"Thank you, Professor," Finlay said before he motioned to the man and said, "First years, since he's here, allow me to introduce Professor Filius Flitwick. He's the Head of the Charms Department and thus you won't have him as a professor until your sixth and seventh years."

"However, he's also Head of Ravenclaw House," Micheil added, "So, you'll be seeing far more of him than most of the other first years."

Smiling at the first years, Flitwick said, "I look forward to getting to know each of you better and teaching you when you're older." Turning to Micheil and Finlay, he added, "Now, you should probably escort them upstairs before Miss Clearwater and the older Ravenclaw prefects send out a search party."

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Arriving at the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower, Micheil and Finlay turned and smiled at their fourteen charges—seven boys and seven girls—before Micheil said, "As you can see there's no doorknob and no keyhole on this door."

Several of the first years nodded, as Finlay said, "To enter our common room, you have to knock using the door knocker. Its enchanted and will ask a riddle, which you must answer correctly for the door to open."

"And if you don't answer it correctly?" Terry Boot asked.

"Well, then you have to wait here until someone else comes along and answers correctly," Micheil said before he turned and Finlay turned to the side so that Micheil could raise his hand and grasp the enchanted knocker.

The eyes of the eagle-shaped knocker glowed for a moment, before a feminine voice asked, "While some months have 30, others have 31. How many have 28?"

"Well, that's easy," Sally-Anne Perks said. "The answer is one."

"Incorrect, Miss Perks," the voice said.

"What? How is that not correct?" Hermione asked. "February has 28 days, so that's one month."

"Incorrect, Miss Granger," the voice said.

Micheil and Finlay laughed, even as Hermione's brow furrowed in frustration, before Finlay said, "I can see many of you are thinking the knocker is broken, but I assure you it isn't."

Nodding, Micheil added, "Yes, you both went with the obvious answer. And in so doing, you've failed to give the question enough thought. If you had, you'd realize that it's a trick question."

With dawning realization, Hadrian said, "12, the answer is 12."

"Correct, Mr. Potter," the voice said, before the sound of a latch opening could be heard, a second before the door swung open.

"How is that rig…?" Kevin asked, but stopped mid-word as he realized what Hadrian had already realized. "Oh," as he slapped his forehead. "Duh, it's a trick question because whether they have 30 or 31, all 12 months have 28 days."

"I should have known that," Hermione muttered, obviously disappointed with herself.

Giving his friend a comforting pat on the back, Hadrian said, "You can't get them all right, Hermione. Anyway, look at the bright side, you can learn from this, and maybe not make the same mistake next time."

Hermione smiled and thanked Hadrian, as Micheil and Finlay ushered the first years through the door and into the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Inside the room, they found a massive round room with a high domed ceiling that was painted blue with stars, a motif that was repeated in the midnight-blue carpet. Eight large and graceful arched windows stretching from floor to ceiling were spread out along the far wall, which was decorated with bronze-trimmed silks in various shades of blue.

To the right, about half-way between the door and the first of the windows was a large light blue marble fireplace, the mantelpiece held up by the outstretched wings of a pair of bronze eagles sitting atop two short dark blue marble Corinthian columns on either side of the hearth.

To the left of the door, an identical pair of eagles resting atop the columns held a large corkboard for the posting of house notices. A multitude of chairs, couches, and low tables was scattered about the room, forming several comfortable seating areas.

Directly across from the door on the other side of the room was a large alcove that held what appeared to be a private library. There was also a large white marble statue sitting in the middle of the alcove.

Pointing at it, Micheil said, "The statue is of Rowena Ravenclaw," even as Finlay pointed at the large portrait above the fireplace and added, "So the painting above the fire. The rest of the paintings around the room are of famous 'claws throughout history."

A few of the students nodded their heads, but before they could comment, the door into the room opened and a blond-haired girl walked in.

"Mic, Fin, there you are," she said. "I've got your patrol assignments for the week."

Accepting the sheet of parchment, Micheil said, "Thanks. Penelope, meet the new firsties. Everyone, this is Penelope Clearwater, the other year five prefect."

Penelope smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

After a few pleasantries were exchanged, Finlay said, "Since you're here, Penny, could you take the girls up to their dorm? We'd do it ourselves, but having absolutely zero interest in girls doesn't except Mic and I from setting off the alarms."

"No problem," Penelope said with a smile.

As the group was separating into two groups, Michael Corner asked, "Alarms?"

"Boys are not allowed in the girl's dormitories," Penelope explained. "So, whatever you do, don't go up that staircase."

As she said this she pointed at a stone staircase that was almost completely hidden behind several tall bookshelves near the announcement board. Only the stone newel post at the bottom of the stairs, the first step, and about a third of the second was visible.

"That leads up to the girl's dorms," Micheil said. "However, boys can't go up there. The stairs will let you get about halfway before an alarm will go off and the stairs will turn into a slide."

"Said slide is magically charmed to be slippery," Finlay said. "So it's pretty much a guarantee you'll end up arse over tip at the bottom of the stairs, with everyone laughing at you. Well, at least those that can restrain themselves from wringing your neck for setting off the alarm, that is."

"Yes, it is quite loud," Penelope said. "According to some of the muggleborns, if any of you live in or around Crowthorne in Berkshire, England then apparently the alarm sounds like the Broadmoor escape sirens, only louder and indoors."

Sally-Anne and Oliver both winced, as Terry Boot, a pureblood whose knowledge of the muggle world was quite limited, asked, "What's Broadmoor? And why does it have escape sirens?"

"It's a muggle psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane," Hadrian answered. "The siren network is tested every Monday at 10 in the morning to make sure it's working."

Nodding, Hermione said, "I have a cousin who lives nearby. She said that the residents are pretty much used to it by now. There haven't been many escapes in recent years, but everyone who lives in the area will definitely sit up and take notice if the sirens go off anytime other than 10 am on Mondays."

"Probably a good idea," Kevin said. "When dealing with the possible escape of a dangerous and mentally unstable criminal."

"Indeed," Finlay agreed, before the group split up, with Penelope leading the girls up the stairs to their dorms, while Micheil and Finlay lead the boys across the common room to the library niche, where they opened a door that was disguised to look like a bookcase that opened into a small hallway with stairs going up and down.

"The common room is on the fifth floor," Micheil explained. "And the boys' dorm rooms are on floors six through thirteen."

"What about the girls' dorms where are they?" Michael Corner asked. "I know we can't go there, but there doesn't seem to be room under the common room for the girls' dorms and since they have a separate staircase, I'm assuming this one," pointing to the one going down, "doesn't lead to the girl's dorms."

"You're right, it doesn't," Finlay said. "Those stairs access two additional floors below the common room. A suite of rooms meant for the head boy if they're in Ravenclaw on the fourth floor and Professor Flitwick's office and quarters on the third."

"As for the girl's dorms, they're not in the same tower as the common room," Micheil explained. "With the domed ceiling, the common room is actually two stories high, but the stairs to the girls' dorm only goes up halfway to a mezzanine level where a corridor leads to a nearby tower that's pretty much an exact copy of this one, only it's about three stories shorter, due to not having a two-story common room and no floor dedicated to the office and quarters of the Head of House."

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Twenty minutes later, Micheil and Finlay bid the first years goodbye and left after giving them a quick tour. Immediately upon entering the room, with your back still facing the door, to the left was another door leading into a large ensuite bathroom. In it were seven toilet stalls and seven sinks, as well as a door to the seven-man communal shower room.

Opposite the bathroom were a pair of large arched floor-to-ceiling windows with a door between them. Through the door was a private covered balcony that had a bunch of wicker furniture, some plants, and an outdoor chess table. The balcony didn't project out but was rather just a hollowed-out outdoor section of the tower.

Micheil and Finlay noted that there was a special screen spell cast along the outside edge that would keep bugs and birds out. The same spell would also regulate the temperature making it cool on hot days and warm on cold days, thus making it usable no matter the time of year it was.

On a diagonal wall near the door to the bathroom was a large fireplace that was open on three sides. There were three comfortable-looking couches arranged in front of it with a coffee table in front of the middle one. There were also two additional chess tables set up on opposite sides of the room.

Two four-foot-high by five-foot wide bookcases were next to a large table with seven chairs which Micheil and Finlay said could be used either as a group study table or also as a gaming table if say they wanted to play Exploding Snap or any other game that wasn't chess.

While most students took their meals in the Great Hall, no rules stated that they had to be eaten there. So, Micheil and Finlay also told the boys that the house-elves, if called, were more than willing to bring food up.

The twins said that on more than one occasion since starting school, the boys in his year had ordered breakfast up to their room rather than making the trek down to the Great Hall. There were also times where if the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower was between their last morning class and their first-afternoon class, that they'd also opt to take lunch in their room rather than walk all the way down to the Great Hall.

There were some limits, of course, such as the house-elves not being able to provide alcohol, even to those students who were of legal age to drink it. This was mainly because the staff didn't want anyone overindulging and getting hungover or being raced to the Hospital Wing with alcohol poisoning.

The house-elves were also not allowed to serve food to the house dormitories on days where attendance at a certain meal, usually dinner, in the Great Hall was mandatory. Although those were usually limited to certain holiday feasts and breakfast the morning after arrival. The latter due to it being the time when the students would get their class schedules.

Set into large niches along one wall were seven separate alcoves, all containing a single four-poster bed, a desk and chair, a nightstand, and a wardrobe. There were two shelves cut into the stone wall above the head of the bed and above the desk and four more cut into the wall next to the wardrobe, providing places for the students to store books, or other personal touches such as plants or family photographs.

Each alcove had a window, as well as a curtain along the side that opened into the rest of the room which could be closed for privacy. There was also a place for their trunks at the foot of the bed, which had all already been brought up by the house-elves. It was through this way that each boy knew which alcove was theirs, as their trunk had been placed in it.

Micheil and Finlay had said that if they really wanted to, they could switch, but if they did, they'd have to be sure to let the house-elves know so that their laundry got put in the right place. All students clothes did have name-tags, but the house-elves were usually pretty busy on laundry days, so unless they were made aware of a change, they'd still deliver the freshly laundered clothes to the wardrobe of the alcove that each student's trunk had been placed in at the beginning of the school year.

Of course, as all of the alcoves were exactly the same right down to the bedding on the beds—midnight blue cotton sheets and pillowcases with a plaid duvet in various shades of blue with bronze accents—none of them really saw a need to switch.

About the only thing that would be different was the view outside the windows, though being dark outside, one couldn't see very far right now. Micheil and Finlay, however, had said that Ravenclaw Tower had the best views out of all the houses in the school. They'd mentioned being able to see the Black Lake, Forbidden Forest, Quidditch pitch, Herbology greenhouses, and the surrounding mountains from most of the windows.

Tired from their train ride, all seven boys agreed to turn in for the night and save getting to know each other better for breakfast the next morning. It's not like there was any great rush. After all, they'd be rooming together for the next seven years, it was pretty much a guarantee that they'd get to know each other very well, especially since they'd be showering together.

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2 September 1991…

At twenty minutes to five the next morning, Hadrian woke up and throwing off his covers, swung his legs off his bed, put his feet in his slippers, and headed out of his alcove to the bathroom. Once he'd taken care of his bladder's pressing needs, he made his way back to his alcove, closed the curtain, and opened his wardrobe.

For the last six months, Hadrian had gotten into the habit of going for a morning run for about an hour every morning before eating breakfast. At home, it was always him and Darius, along with Sirius and Remus. Vernon joined them about two times a week.

Their other friends who lived in the neighborhood—Piers, Kevin, and Wayne—also frequently joined them, just not every morning. They averaged about three to four days a week, rather than all seven without fail. Although they'd each said they'd like to increase the number of days per week they did it.

After pulling on a pair of light cotton workout shorts and a t-shirt, Hadrian sat down on his bed to put on his socks and running shoes. Finished, he opened his curtain and found Kevin exiting his alcove, also dressed and ready to go running.

"Joining me this morning?" Hadrian asked.

"Yup," Kevin said. "I heard you get up and I didn't really feel tired anymore, so, I figured might as well."

"What are you guys doing up so early?" came the sleepy voice of Stephen Cornfoot, as he sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Going for a morning run," Hadrian said. "I do it every morning and Kevin usually joins me three to four days a week."

"You know each other outside of Hogwarts?" Anthony Goldstein asked as he exited the bathroom.

"Yup, we live on adjacent streets in the same neighborhood," Kevin answered. "So, we've been friends for years now."

"Cool," Anthony said, before, after a moment of thought, he asked, "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure, the more the merrier," Hadrian said. "If you don't mind the fact that at least one Slytherin will likely be joining us since my cousin Darius runs with me every morning."

"That's fine," Anthony said, as he headed for his alcove. "Just give me a couple minutes to get dressed."

"Are you even allowed to go out this early?" Stephen asked.

Nodding, Hadrian answered, "Yes, I checked with Micheil and Finlay and they said it's fine. In fact, they're planning on joining us too, so we'll be with a prefect."

"Isn't it prefects?" Stephen asked.

"Technically, only Finlay was made a prefect," Kevin said, as Hadrian had already told his friends this. "But, since he shares everything from the neck down with his brother, the teachers made an exception and granted Micheil equal status."

"Yeah, Fin can't really do his prefect duties without Mic's help," Hadrian added.

"Fin? Mic?" Stephen asked. "You're friends with them too, I take it?"

"Yup," Hadrian confirmed, as Stephen nodded and got out of bed. "Well, I can't sleep anyway, so give me a few minutes to go to the bathroom and change, and I'll join you."

"You guys do whatever you want," came the sleepy and annoyed sounding voice of Michael Corner. "Just do it quietly. Some people are still trying to sleep."

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About five minutes later, Hadrian, Kevin, Stephen, and Anthony left the first-year boy's dormitory and headed down to the common room. Upon arriving, they could see that Micheil and Finlay weren't down yet, so the others took seats in front of the fireplace while Hadrian went back to the stairs and climbed up to the tenth floor of the tower where the fifth-year boy's dorm was located.

Unsurprisingly, the door was closed when he arrived, but Micheil and Finlay had told him to just come in, so he did. Entering the room, Hadrian saw that the tower was laid out identically to his own dorm room, except that only four of the seven alcoves had curtains on them since only four of them were actually being used.

Without the curtains hanging on the rod that went across the entrance to the alcoves, Hadrian could see the wardrobe, desk and chair, nightstand, and bed of each. However, the difference here was that the bed was stripped down to the mattress, rather than having any bedding on it. There were also no trunks resting at the foot of the beds.

Of the four alcoves that were in use, three of them had their curtains closed, leaving only the one open. Going over, Hadrian immediately knew it had to be Micheil and Finlay's alcove because he could see their initials MFM and FMM engraved on the trunk on either side of the MacDougal coat of arms.

Micheil and Finlay shared a trunk because they honestly didn't see the point in getting two trunks when one would hold all of their belongings just fine. It's not like they could open and go through two different trunks at the same time anyway.

The house-elves had not been in to clean yet, so the bed was unmade and had clearly been slept in. Guessing they must be in the bathroom, Hadrian made his way over to the bathroom door and went in. It didn't take long for him to realize that none of the bathroom stalls were in use, which left only one place in the tower that they could be.

Hadrian hesitated outside the door to the shower area of the bathroom, as a part of him couldn't help but think that it would be wrong of him to just walk in while they were in the shower. Another, part of him, however, had always been curious about what they looked like without them as he'd never actually seen them without their clothes.

Even when they'd had pool parties on Privet Drive, Micheil and Finlay had always worn a t-shirt with their swim trunks, so he'd never even seen them without a shirt on before. His curiosity was purely innocent, of course, as while his Claiming had triggered certain parts of puberty, the sexual aspects of it had not been triggered and wouldn't be until he turned thirteen.

Making up his mind, Hadrian opened the door and walked into the shower room. He was pretty sure he blushed upon catching sight of Micheil and Finlay, who were standing there completely naked. They were leaning forward slightly, their back turned to him, and Micheil had his hand against the tiles, as Finlay moved his…

'Oh gods,' Hadrian thought to himself, blushing crimson as he realized that he'd caught his friends jerking off in the shower.

He knew he should leave, preferably before they knew he was there, but for some unfathomable reason, he found that his feet no longer seemed to work. It's as if he'd stepped in a puddle of spilled glue because his feet wouldn't move. As much as he wanted to look away, he couldn't, and instead, he found his eyes drifting ever lower as he looked at every inch of what he could see of the twin's naked body.

It wasn't long before he noticed that they each had two magical creatures tattooed on their skin. Studying them for a moment, Hadrian tried to remember what they were from looking at pictures in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, both the textbook version he now had and the children's picture book version he'd had for several years.

Calling up the images in his mind and what the books said about the creatures, he realized that Micheil had a Hungarian Horntail dragon on his shoulder blade and a thestral on the back of his thigh. Finlay, meanwhile, had a Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon on his shoulder blade and a thunderbird on the back of his neck, just below the hairline.

Hadrian's Ravenclaw mind immediately started recalling everything he could remember about the two animals, even as he started wondering just why Micheil and Finlay had gotten tattoos and if their parents knew or if they'd snuck out and gotten them behind their backs.

One other thing he noticed was that Micheil's thestral was just a faint gray outline, while the horntail, along with Finlay's ironbelly and thunderbird were vibrant full-color depictions. He couldn't help but wonder why Micheil's thestral was so incomplete looking in comparison to the others.

Micheil and Finlay moaned loudly, as Hadrian heard Micheil moan a name half a second before Finlay followed suit. Hadrian's blush deepened as he realized that the names they'd said were Kaidan and Karter.

Hadrian's eyes widened and he could feel his blush getting even worse, as Micheil and Finlay made indecipherable moaning sounds, seconds before several streams of a stringy white substance that Hadrian realized was cum became visible between their legs, hitting the tiles of the wall and floor, the water washing it down the drain.

'I'd better get out of here,' Hadrian said, as he knew from the sex talk that cum meant they were almost done and if he didn't want to get caught watching, he had to move now. Much to his relief, he found his feet were working now… except in his haste to get away before he was caught he turned around a little too fast and overbalanced himself in the process.

'Oh shit,' Hadrian thought, as he found himself falling face-first onto the floor.

The noise obviously drew Micheil and Finlay's attention, as they turned their upper body enough so that Finlay could turn his head and look behind them. "Hadrian?" he asked, as he saw his friend sprawled out on the floor in the doorway.

Micheil turned off the shower and grabbed a towel from the nearby towel rod, which he and Finlay wrapped around their waist before they turned around and came closer, at which point they noticed that Hadrian was lying on the floor, and there was a small stream of blood trickling away from his head.

Quickly coming over and inspecting their friend, they found him dazed and clearly embarrassed… he wasn't the only one… but otherwise okay, except for a small cut on his forehead about two inches to the left of his famous scar.

Helping Hadrian to his feet, Micheil and Finlay led him out of the bathroom and over to their alcove, pleased to note that none of their dorm mates were awake yet as their curtains were all still closed. Of course, they were all late risers in the twins' experience, usually not getting up until about half-an-hour before breakfast was due to start.

Sitting Hadrian down on their bed, Micheil reached over to the shelf above the bed and grabbed his wand. Waving it in front of Hadrian's face, Micheil quickly cast two spells in rapid succession, one to heal the small cut and the other to clean up the blood.

Finlay, meanwhile, pulled the curtain shut and used his own wand to put up a Silencing Charm. He then proceeded to cast a series of Drying Charms, since he and Micheil hadn't taken the time to towel off after their shower, as they'd been more concerned with Hadrian at the time.

Spells cast and Hadrian's forehead healed, Micheil sighed, "Not exactly the way I saw our shower ending, but, oh well."

"I'm sorry," Hadrian mumbled.

"It's okay, Rian," Finlay said. "We're not mad. It's not like we have anything that you don't have and you're certainly not the first person to see us naked."

Micheil nodded before he and Finlay moved over to their wardrobe and opened it, using the door to give themselves a modicum of privacy as they grabbed a pair of underwear and dropped their towel before putting them on.

Since their roommates never got up as early as they did, Micheil and Finlay had gotten into the habit of jerking off during the first of their morning showers.

They took two because they'd been going for a morning run for the last two years, but they'd always been unable to function in the mornings without a shower. Just like Vernon needed his cup of morning tea to cease looking like a zombie, the twins needed a shower.

Thus, they ended up showering a second time after they got back from their run, by which point their dorm mates we all awake. Since none of them were early risers, however, and they were jerking off, they usually locked the door to the shower room during their first shower of the morning.

"So, you saw us showering," Micheil began, as he turned his head towards Finlay, even as they pulled on a pair of workout shorts, and said, "Since somebody forgot to lock the door."

"Why is it my fault?" Finlay asked. "You could have locked it."

"Because I asked you to and you said you would," Micheil pointed out. "And in case you forgot, my hand was full, as I was carrying our new bottle of shampoo."

"Fine, I screwed up," Finlay said. "Happy?"

"Not particularly but there's nothing I can do about it now," Micheil said.

As the twins fell silent for a moment, as they looked through their shirts to see which one they wanted to wear this morning, Hadrian, having gotten over his embarrassment, said, "You're wrong, by the way."

"About?" Finlay asked, as he tilted his head pas the wardrobe door and looked at Hadrian.

"About not having anything that I don't have."

Micheil chuckled and said, "Well, I guess that's true enough, as you don't have two heads unless you count the one between your legs."

Rolling his eyes, Hadrian said, "I meant your tattoos, you jackarse."

"Hadrian, language," Finlay chastised in his best prefect voice, before he asked, "Tattoos? What are you talking about?"

"The thunderbird, dragons, and thestral."

T-shirt in hand and dressed enough to be presentable, the twins closed the wardrobe door and moved to sit next to Hadrian on the bed.

"Those aren't tattoos," Micheil said as they pulled their shirt on over their heads. "They're soulmarks."

"Soulmarks?" Hadrian asked, having never heard of them before.

"I suppose your aunt, Sirius, and Remus were probably going to tell you closer to your thirteenth birthday," Finlay answered. "That's when a witch or wizard's soulmark generally appears. They can appear later in life, but the vast majority of the magical populace get them within about ten to fifteen minutes of the thirteenth anniversary of their birth."

"Some people don't have one," Micheil added. "They're referred to as being markless, although that's believed to be pretty rare. Anyway, a soulmark is a mark that denotes that the person who has it has a soulmate. The more romantic people of this world would tell you that your soulmate is the one great love of your life that you're destined by the Fates themselves to be with and that you should save yourself for them."

"There's a very big problem with that idea, however," Finlay said. "In that many people never find their soulmates, as its entirely possible that they don't even live in the same country. They could live on the other side of the world in a country that you're highly unlikely to ever visit."

"There's no spell to locate them?" Hadrian asked.

Shaking his head from side to side, as he put his leg on his brother's knee so that they could put on one of their socks and shoes, Micheil said. "No, there isn't. The only way to find one's soulmate is to physically touch them and even then it has to be skin on skin contact."

"It also doesn't work unless both members of the soul pair are at least thirteen years old and have their soulmarks," Finlay added. "The marks have to match completely. Not only the animal or creature and location on the body, but they also have to be in the exact same pose."

"So, if you met somebody who had a thestral in the same place as Micheil," Hadrian said, "but the heads were facing in different directions, that means you're not soulmates?"

"Correct," Micheil said, as he put his foot down and Finlay copied his previous action so that they could put on their other sock and shoe.

"I take it there's some sort of significance with the coloring? I couldn't help but notice that the two dragons and the thunderbird were vibrant full-color, while the thestral was just a faint gray outline."

"Yes, they're faint gray outlines when you first get them," Finlay explained. "And they stay that way until you meet and touch your soulmate, at which point they'll darken to more distinct black outlines… or white if your skin is dark enough that a black outline would be hard to see against it."

"Full-color means that you've not only found your soulmate," Micheil said, "but bonded with them." Blushing slightly, he coughed and said, "Which requires you to be in love and have sex with them."

"Ah, I see," Hadrian said. "Kaidan and Karter?"

Nodding, Finlay said, "Yes. Kaidan has a horntail that perfectly matches Micheil's and a thunderbird that matches mine. And Karter has the twin of my ironbelly."

"So, Kaidan is a soulmate to both of you," Hadrian said. "Karter is Finlay's soulmate, and Micheil still has a soulmate out there somewhere that you haven't met."

"Yup," Micheil said. "So does Karter, actually. Anyway, we should get going on our run. Anyone else joining us?"

"I'm sure Darius will be waiting for us in the entry hall," Hadrian said. "And Kevin, Stephen, and Anthony are waiting for us in the common room."

"Cool, well, let's not keep them waiting," Finlay said, as he held out his arm so that Micheil could attach the holster holding his wand to Finlay's arm before Finlay attached his to Micheil's.

Some people opted for a spring-loaded holster that could eject their wand into their hand, but Micheil and Finlay preferred holsters that kept their wands on their off-arms, which in their case happened to be each other's arms.

"If you have any other questions about soulmates," Micheil said, "you can ask us later via the journal."

Hadrian nodded before Micheil waved his wand and ended the Silencing Charm before Finlay pushed open the curtain, and they left the dormitory.

-o-0-o-

Collecting the others, the Ravenclaw group made their way down to the ground floor, arriving in the entrance hall only seconds before Darius came up the steps from the dungeons, accompanied by Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Not long afterward, Wayne came up the stairs that led down to the kitchens and the Hufflepuff dorms, accompanied by Ernie Macmillan and Cedric Diggory.

After a few quick introductions were made for those who didn't have an eidetic memory like Hadrian and couldn't remember everyone's name and face from the Sorting Feast the previous night, the group decided they might as well take advantage of the deserted entrance hall and do some stretches while they waited for the Gryffindor group to arrive.

It was about five minutes later that Hadrian caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but it turned out to not be the Gryffindors, but the caretaker, Argus Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris.

"Well, well, what have we here," Filch said, as he rubbed his hands together in a rather menacing looking way. "Students out of bed."

"With all due respect, Mr. Filch," Finlay said, "there's nothing wrong with that." Holding up his hand when it looked like Filch was going to argue, he said, "A, they're with a prefect," as he motioned to the golden prefect's badge pinned to his and Micheil's shirt.

"And B," Micheil added, as he motioned towards the clock on the wall, "if you didn't notice, it's after five in the morning, so curfew ended fifteen minutes ago."

"And C," Hadrian said, "it's outside of school hours and they're all in the company of a Grand Duke."

Filch's eyes widened slightly, as he saw Hadrian. Bowing he said, "My apologies, I didn't see you, Your Most Royal Highness." Despite his words, he did grumble slightly, before asking, "May I ask why you're loitering in the entry hall at this hour?"

"We're going out for a morning run," Micheil said. "Some of the Gryffindors are joining us, so we figured we'd do some stretching until they got here."

"And here they are," Finlay said as he looked up the stairs behind Filch and saw Piers Polkiss coming down the stairs, along with Neville Longbottom, Percy, Fred, and George Weasley, and Kaidan and Karter.

Mrs. Norris had already lost interest before the Gryffindors appeared and had slinked off down a nearby corridor. Filch just sighed and followed her as the Gryffindor group stepped down from the stairs.

"Morning all," Percy said with a smile. He may be the serious and bookish type, confounding more than a few as to why he wasn't placed in Ravenclaw, but he still exercised. He alternated between joining Fred and George for their morning run and going to the weight room in the gym. This morning he decided to go for a run.

"Morning, Perce," Micheil said, as he and Finlay moved past him and the other Gryffindors to Kaidan and Karter and pulled them into a kiss.

Normally, Percy might have taken issue to such a public display of affection, as it was technically against the rules, but he chose to look the other way when it came to his dorm mates since he knew that Micheil and Finlay were their bonded soulmates.

It was after Micheil ended his kiss with Kaidan and Finlay with Karter—and they'd moved slightly so that Finlay could kiss Kaidan too—that the two sets of twins moved where the others could see them. They'd been at the back of the group of lions and thus Hadrian and the first years from the other houses hadn't gotten a good look at them.

Now, however, they did and most of their jaws were on the floor.

"You're not identical," Wayne said, as he blinked his eyes in disbelief as he looked at Kaidan and Karter, who were conjoined the same way that Micheil and Finlay were, sharing everything from their necks down.

"And you have different skin colors," Kevin said, as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. At this point, having met Micheil and Finlay previously, and Neall and Niall, he was used to conjoined twins. But they'd all been identical, unlike Kaidan and Karter.

"I know, it must be a bit jarring for somebody who's never seen our kind before," the white twin said. "I'm Kaidan Shacklebolt."

"And I'm Karter Shacklebolt," the black twin said. "And yes, we're mixed-race fraternal conjoined twins."

Kaidan had brown hair and blue eyes, while Karter had black hair and brown eyes. Still, it was Kaidan's white skin and Karter's black skin that had caused the biggest amount of shock in those among the group who had never seen them before.

Theodore, Blaise, Ernie, and Anthony were all purebloods from noble families, so they knew, intellectually, that fraternal conjoined twins could exist in the magical world, but they'd never met any before now. So, it was jarring, especially when the first set they met was so obviously not identical.

"How?" Hadrian asked. "I was under the impression that conjoined twins were always identical, having resulted in a single fertilized egg that failed to split completely in two."

"That is the normal process, yes," Kaidan said. "However, in magical twins, it's also possible for fraternal twins to be born conjoined if one of them was in danger of being stillborn."

"Essentially, the magic of one twin," Karter added, "locks onto the magic of the other twin while they're still in the womb and they get fused together to save the life of the twin that would have otherwise been dead at birth."

"The joining is so complete," Percy said, "that it's impossible to tell which is which. So Kaidan and Karter have no idea which one of them was in danger of being stillborn, just that one of them was."

"Not knowing is a good thing, when you think about it," Finlay said. "In this way, neither of them can hold literally saving the life of their twin over the other's head."

Nodding, Kaidan said, "Yes, to be honest, even if there was a way to find out, I wouldn't want to know."

"Neither would I, honestly," Karter agreed. "Anyway, as for our different skin colors, our fathers, Leo and Shawn Shacklebolt, are a mixed-race couple. Kaidan more strongly resembles Shawn, while I take after Leo."

"Fraternal twins with different skin colors are a possible result of a mixed-race couple having children together," Micheil explained. "It's just very rare, even in the magical world, for that possibility to be combined with fraternal conjoined twins."

"Even with conjoined twins being more common in the magical world compared to the muggle world," Percy said, "most sets are identical. Less than five percent are fraternal."

Grinning, Karter said, "I guess that makes us special."

"You'll get no arguments from us," Finlay said, as Micheil nodded.

Everybody laughed before some more introductions were done and the Gryffindors did some stretching along with the others before they opened the front doors and headed out on their run, choosing to circle the lake since Theo told them that even though it was only the first day of classes, the Slytherin team had already booked the pitch for an early morning Quidditch practice.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there you have Ch9 of "The Seventh Olympian". So, Hadrian has finally met Kaidan and Karter and they're rather unique, to say the least. We also learned about soulmates and soulmate-identifying marks. And got our first look inside Hadrian's new home for the next seven years.

I'll probably be switching focus to one of my other stories now that I've posted three chapters of this in a row. Not sure which one right now, but I guess we'll see.

Also, I would just like to say that while I truly do appreciate each and every one of my loyal readers and reviewers, I would ask that you please do not leave reviews on any of my works that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the story that you're reviewing.

I've gotten several reviews in the last couple of months which expressed disappointment that I'd updated one story over one of my others that the reviewer apparently likes more. And even a few where they asked me to update a specific story in a review on a different one and didn't say anything at all about the story they were actually reviewing. Maybe I'm crazy, but I find that annoying and annoyance doesn't breed creativity or inspiration, both of which are needed if you want any updates at all.