AN: Finally a new chapter. Remember: Read, Review, Repeat!

Chapter 7

The moment that Hebenon woke up, he knew that it was going to be a wonderful day. Even from all the way underground where the dungeons were, he could feel the clouds moving in high above. The electricity that was building up in those deepening clouds caused every cell of his body to vibrate sweetly and he was smiling before he even opened his eyes. He loved thunderstorms with their violent tendencies and sweet tempers. They reminded him so much of his mother.

As he sat up in bed, the single thin sheet falling away, he looked around the dark room with his glowing eyes. The others were all still asleep, either curled up under their blankets or sprawled out across their sheets in a most undignified manner, with the exception of Ballista, who had her head tucked under a ruffled wing. Hebenon himself preferred to sleep as tensely as possible, legs together, arms crossed over his chest and always –without fail- on his back. It provided the best back support, he found.

Slipping from his best, he padded to the wardrobe, silently opening the doors before he began to pull his clothes for the day from the dark shelves. He knew that the robes were required and he had no desire to break the dress code, but he also knew that he had to be himself. In the darkness, he smirked at the silk shirt in his hands, pitch black as was required and ripped at the shoulders. His grandmother had made it for him herself, straight from her beloved death worms. Such lovely little, furry creatures even if they produced a mean hallucinogenic poison.

On his way to the bathroom, he grabbed his makeup kit from the desk along with a few other valuables. He wanted to make a good impression on his first day.

He traipsed into the bathroom and set his clothes carefully on one of the benches. Without saying a word, he magically started the shower, turning it to the coldest temperature as he began to undress. He started with his shirt, yanking it over his head and carefully folding it before setting it down beside his choices for the day. Next came his silk pants, which he kicked to the side. Hebenon was not a fan of either boxers or briefs.

Stepping into the shower, he shivered happily at the cold temperature and set about washing his long hair. Having laid claim to the shower the night before, he grabbed his grandmama's special potion from the shelf. Pouring a small amount of the thick, viscous fluid onto his palm, he rubbed his hands together and ran it easily through his long black locks. Starting at the bottom, he worked his way up to his scalp, his long claw-like fingernails accidently nicking the skin in a few places. The slight peck of pain made him smile as he sat under the spray, letting the water rinse the thick remains of the solution made of burned salamander muscles, bat's eyes and other such useful things. Taking a deep breath, he smiled when he sniffed the familiar smell.

Grandmama had tinted the shampoo with the scent of lily of the valley.

With a flick of his wrist, he turned off the shower and pushed aside the curtain. Glancing around, he spotted the shelf of towels on the far side of the room and padded over to it, grabbing the thinnest, roughest looking one. As it brushed against his skin, he shuddered: far too soft for his taste.

As he lifted the towel to his hair and began wrapping it up, bearing the lower half of his body, the door to the bathroom opened. Ruffling his hair with the towel, he turned to spot one of the boys –Blaise, if he remembered correctly- standing in the doorway, mouth open and eyes wide. Hebenon's mouth quirked a little in the corners as he turned away again, finishing his hair with one last sweep. Vanishing it with a snap of his fingers, he sat down on the nearest bench and began applying his makeup. A mirror and brush appeared out of nowhere, the mirror floating in front of him while the brush began to comb through his hair effortlessly.

He'd finished with his pale foundation before he noticed that Blaise hadn't moved. One eyebrow –the left and innocent one- quickly rose.

"Yes?"

"Merlin Adams! Put some damn clothes on!" Draco snarled as he stepped into the bathroom, shuffling tiredly past the still frozen Blaise

Hebenon shot the blond a wicked smile. Standing, he turned to face Draco, not caring at all about his lack of clothing. The blond stood at the sink, examining the skin on his face closely in the mirror. He glanced over at Hebenon and groaned again, shaking his head.

"Come on, Adams! Decency, please!"

Cocking his weight to one side, Hebenon quickly adjusted the wrap on top of his head before grabbing another one off of the self. He unfolded it carefully, slowly, his green eyes carefully measuring every move from the other teenager.

"I never thought you would be one for prudency, Malfoy. You go to a boarding school and room with other boys. I'm positive that you've seen your fill of other men's parts," he teased.

"I'd rather not see any of that at six in the morning on the first day of classes, Adams," Draco muttered angrily.

Rolling his eyes, Hebenon quickly dried himself off and grabbed his clothes off of the bench. Turning away again, he slipped on his black slacks and the long-sleeved tight shirt he had picked out. The silk felt smooth against his skin as it slid over his shoulders and chest. When he was fully dressed, he padded over to the closest mirror and opened his makeup kit.

It had been a gift from his mother for his thirteenth birthday, just after she'd caught him playing around in hers. The box was made entirely out of wood from an ash tree with a symbol carved on top, a blackbird. Inside were three rows of paints, oils, and powders while the inside of the box top was lined with a variety of brushes of varying sizes and shapes.

'What the hell is that, Adams?"

Hebenon smirked as he glanced up at the blond. He ran his fingers smoothly over the wood, dancing his fingers over the powders to determine what shade of pale white he would paint himself with today.

"It was a gift from my mother. The wood-ash- represents a connection with the external world. The blackbird is a symbol of our family, a tie to the magics of Mother Nature. We are her favorites."

"Nature plays favorites?" Draco asked.

"Of course she does, just like the castle."

"Hogwarts?" Blaise wondered, finally breaking out of his silent, frozen state.

With a flourish, Hebenon whipped out his compact and began applying the pale foundation in practices strokes and blots. It wasn't until his face was a fair shade of corpse-like white that he replied.

"She's sentient, did you not know? She was whispering to me all night."

"Whispering? The castle whispers?" Malfoy asked with a small sneer.

Hebenon chuckled and nodded as he began to apply the dark eyeliner that he preferred. "Of course. We can't have anyone else overhearing, can we? She's very picky about who she wants to talk to."

He didn't see the glance that Draco and Blaise exchanged, but he could sense it anyway, bringing a grin to his face. Snapping the lid of his eyeliner pencil back on, he placed the small thin utencil back in the book before standing. He made his way over to the sink beside Malfoy, checking for any abnormalities in his application. None to be found; perfect.

With a silent incantation, he summoned his clothes onto his body, dressed in a flash in all black with only the silver and green Slytherin tie to break the constant dark state of his apparel. Unwinding the towel from his head, he let his dark hair fall, dry and straight, flaring out at the ends in its natural state. Vanishing the towel, he spun on his heel and made his way to the bathroom door.

"Bye boys! I'll see you at breakfast."

Entering the bedroom, he saw that Bastilla was still asleep, grumbling slightly as her head shifted. He smiled softly at his beloved demon, knowing that although she was physically in their world, her mind and the ruined, filthy thing that served as her soul was in the demon realm.

Grabbing his bag off his bed, he stepped out into the hall and traipsed through the common room in complete silence. Even the portrait was silent as it swung open for him. As he made his way through the dungeons and up to the main floor of the castle, he flitted from shadow to shadow, going largely unnoticed by the few students that were already up and about. He enjoyed some of the attention that the students gave him, living up to the Addams name in order to impress them, but Hebenon already greatly appreciated the quiet times. Sneaking up on the young couple of sixth years making out in an alcove and whispering taunting comments from the shadows was just too great of fun to pass up.

Approaching the Great Hall, he found Luna waiting for him, her blond hair down around her shoulders as she inspected a little round ball of glass that she held in her hands. Hebenon smiled as he approached her, his lips pulling apart to show the sharp teeth behind them, a rare feat indeed.

"Morning, darling. Have you seen the clouds?" he asked cheerfully as she looked up from her glass.

"Looks like a storm. You seem to like storms," Luna replied.

"Of course. My uncle, Fester, always goes out in the storms, as it's a good time to stock up on energy. He has an electrical current flowing through him naturally you know. He just has to replenish it every now and then."

"Fascinating. Do you know what a palantír is, Hebenon?" (1)

The green eyes grew wide with excitement as they flicked down to the small glass ball in her hand. As he stared, the once clear object grew dark, like a cloud drifting across the moon, blocking all light. The thundering noise from outside was matched within the palantire, clashing and whistling as his eyes opened ever wider and the pupils dilated until it was just the side of a pinhead, the snake-like coloring left in its place.

"I've only heard of them," he said quietly. "Do they really work the way they say?"

"I am still trying to discern it. There are these strange markings along the inside of the glass sometimes and I can't read them. I shall have to show you, if they ever appear again."

Hebenon hissed his excitement as together, as if one entity attached at the hip and stepping in time, they entered the hall. The few students that were assembled, a single first year Slytherin, three Ravenclaws pouring over a stack of books, one Hufflepuff (third year, Hebenon guessed) and two Gryffindors looking terribly sleeping were seated at their respective tables, munching on the assorted foods laid out before them.

Taking a seat together at the Slytherin table and ignoring the strange looks from everyone else, the two new friends gossiped and debated about the supposed palantír in Luna's possession. Even as the other students filed in and the professors came and went, no one disturbed the two strange students as they giggled about dark magic and supposedly forgotten arts. Even when the schedules were handed out, neither Luna nor Hebenon even turned to acknowledge it.

Finally, as the first official crack of thunder broke across the sky, Hebenon finally glanced down at his schedule. He raised one eyebrow and hummed under his breath.

"Displeased?" Luna asked as she picked at the remains of her toast.

"The classes are so limited. Potions? Do you learn only potions or do you learn draughts, poisons, elixirs, and tonics too?"

"We learn them all, although I do find that sometimes we are limited in the number of certain kinds that we learn. Defense Against the Dark Arts is the worst. We've had a series of unprofessional professors for that."

Hebenon did not scowl –as he had learned most adamantly that an Addams does not scowl outright- but the slight downward turn of his mouth announced his displeasure.

"What a waste of good time. Ah well, we shall just have to supplement our learning, won't we, darling?"

"I would hope so," Luna replied dreamily. "Hopefully it will improve this year though."

"Hoping does not always make it so," Hebenon said.

"Yes, but Professor Snape –your head of house- is teaching this year. He was the potions professor before now, but I've heard rumors that Defense was in fact his best subject in school."

Hebenon's other eyebrow shot up into a look of cool surprise. "He's been here for years and no one had put him into the position best fitted for him before?"

Luna shrugged little, matching Hebenon's typically little smile. "Stupidity sometimes overflows."

"How apt."

Hebenon found his first day at Hogwarts to be fairly interesting indeed. The classes were largely boring as he learned most of it before through his grandmamma, just without all of this wand flicking that these wizards did. To pass the time, he read his books searching for any bits of knowledge that they were not covering in class –which he discovered to be quite a lot- and stared at the other students around him. Most of them were magically average, which a few very weak ones mixed in. There were few that had any real power that he could discern, but he knew that he would have to scry for it later to be sure.

Draco Malfoy was above average, he'd discovered, a fairly good prospect indeed, along with one of the Gryffindor boys, a shy thing he was. Hebenon could see that he had no practical abilities with defense like Malfoy or charms like the bushy haired Gryffindor girl. His abilities were much more deeply engrained, latent and burning from within his blood. It made Hebenon want to show his teeth, but for the family pride, he refrained. Then there was the blond Hufflepuff that had gained his attention during Ancient Runes. There were possibilities there.

Among the professors, he found himself very unimpressed. The older ones like Flitwick and McGonagall were powerful to be sure, but Trelawney was hardly a true seer, such an old bat addicted to her opium teas and sweet incense. Severus Snape was possibly the darkest and most powerful presence in the entire school, his abilities nearly reaching the level of Hebenon's own. The moment that Hebenon stepped into his classroom, the darkest part of his soul awakened to pay attention, hissing in the back of his mind like a snake, flicking a forked tongue. And on his person, Hebenon could smell something even darker, even more intoxicating. Spicy and rich.

Intriguing. Perhaps Grandmamma's stories about the supposed Dark Lord were true. He would have to investigate this, but he knew he should bide his time. Wait it out to see what happened. An Addams should never rush into anything unprepared, after all.

As the Addams family returned to their home at 0001 Cemetery Lane, Morticia found herself nostalgic. Stepping through the front door, she pulled back the veil from her face and looked around with a pitiful sigh. The front hall and parlor looked the same as when they had left, but she could sense the sharp decrease in dark magic that lived there. Placing her cool hand on her cheek, she sighed again and shook her head.

"What is it, cara mía?" Gomez asked as he came up behind her.

"Gomez, our little kingkiller is gone! Hebenon isn't here anymore," she cried.

"That he is, my darling. He is across the sea, learning magic, meeting new people, and causing all the havoc he can," Gomez replied, proudly.

"Don't be sad, Morticia!" Fester said, waddling into the house. "He's an Addams! He can take care of himself."

"Besides," Gomez continued as he steered his wife towards her favorite wicker chair in the parlor, "All of our children will have to leave sometime."

Morticia gracefully sat in her chair, the sad glaze still heavy in her eyes. Pugsley, her more living child, came up and kissed her hand before rushing upstairs with a much more stoic Wednesday. Taking a deep breath, Morticia set her hands in her lap and leaned forward slightly in her seat.

"I will just have to content with the hope that I have taught him well," she sighed.

Grandmamma Frump cackled, stepping over to the fireplace to bring it alight. "You have taught him well, darling. He is just like you when you were young. All of the men will fall in line and then the dead too! Who knows, maybe he will bring back a deliciously dark mate when he returns home at the end of the year."

"Mother!" Morticia gasped. "I don't want to discuss it!"

"You were very open about discussing it with Hebenon before he left, daughter," Grandmama Frump said.

Morticia shivered a little and set her shoulders right, resting her hands on the arms of her chair. "I have to talk about it with them, but that doesn't mean I wish for him to bring one home on the first try."

"I would not worry so much Grandmamma or you, cara mía. Hebenon is her baby boy and Pugsley has shown no interest in a mate of any kind, but I still say that Hebenon will be fine," Gomez said, lighting up a cigar. "He's only been at school for two days. What could have possibly happened, other than maybe a good murder or two?"

At that moment, the fireplace burst into green flames and a scroll, perfectly rolled and sealed flopped out onto the table beside Morticia's chair. With delicacy, she picked it up and examined the seal, smirking at the crest.

"It's from Hebenon," she announced as she broke the seal and unrolled the paper.

"Oh, what does it say, cara mía? What does it say?"

"He says that he is settling in well as is Ballista. He's made a friend already, a girl by the name of Luna. She's in another house, but we all know that Hebenon does not discriminate," Morticia began, her eyes scanning the parchment.

At that moment, Pugsley and Wednesday came running down the stairs, the young woman's twin braids flying as they took up residence on the couch. Both of them were the epitome of cool interest.

"The classes are subpar, with the exception of a few, and he is already discerning the best ways to cause chaos in the school."

And then Morticia paused, examining the elegant handwriting with narrow eyes and a single well shaped, but raised eyebrow.

"He's found some interesting conquests as well."

Grandmamma began to cackle as Gomez proudly puffed up his chest.

"I told you! He's an Addams! Half of them will be dead by Yule and the other half will be so in love that they might as well be!"

I know that its been a while, but hopefully I can get back into writing now that midterms are coming to an end. For those who are fans of my WD story, I should have a few chapters up soon as I am finally watching the new season and I have a lot to catch up on. To be honest, I have had severe writer's block this past year and combined with study abroad this semester, it has been crazy. Thank you to the fans that have stuck with me.

1. This is a reference to the Lord of the Rings series. A palantír are the seeing stones. Saruman has one in the first movie and Sauron uses it to communicate with him through the Eye of Sauron.