Albus Potter awoke with a start, a sheen of sweat covering his sluggish face as he met the cold eyes of the figure standing over him. He was not wearing pyjamas even though it must have been the early hours of the morning. Nor was he in his robes however, but instead a pair of worn looking black jeans, a black T-shirt and a black jacket. Between that and his dark eyes, Albus would not have been aware of his presence if it weren’t for his alabaster skin which was only emphasised by the blackness of his outfit.
Albus knew he should be comforted to know that the pain was all in his imagination and that he was safe and in his new bed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he couldn’t feel entirely relaxed when faced with the image of a fair-skinned youth hovering over him in an imposing manner. He tried to speak but no sound came out and, as he sat up, all he could manage were a few feeble splutters. He noticed that the boy had taken half a step backwards, but Albus felt he was still uncomfortably close. He was about to ask the stranger what on earth he was thinking, but he was prevented from doing so by a whisper from the boy.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. You were tossing and turning a lot and mumbling. I just wanted to check if you were all right.” He surveyed Albus as if to confirm his analysis. “And you seem alright to me, so...” He pointed to the vacant four-poster bed, whose sheets were still unturned and he was about to make his way towards it when Albus prevented him from doing so, still slightly bleary-eyed and confused as to this person’s identity.
“Wait, who are you?” he hissed, so as not to wake the other residents of the dormitory.
It was only after he posed the question that he realised what a foolish one it was. It was the final, unoccupied bed’s missing resident. He couldn’t recall the boy’s name from Sorting, but what mystified Albus more was the fact that he was missing in the first place. What was he doing? And why wasn’t he in his robes like he should have been? The boy leant against the poster on the far right hand side of the bed, cocking his head to the side so that it was illuminated by the thin strip of moonlight that shone through the drapes. In this light Albus could properly inspect the boy’s face. He had high cheek bones and large dark blue eyes with a small, straight nose and relatively full lips. His hair was somewhat tousled, but it suited him, as did the colour; a rich ebony to match his taste in clothing. He was very handsome and quite perfect looking if it weren’t for a scar that went diagonally across his eyebrow, narrowly missing his eye, extending nearly to the top of one of his much defined cheekbones.
His hushed voice broke Albus out of his reverie. “I’m Tristan Magnus, your new room-mate,” he paused, looking round the room unemotionally at all of the sleeping first years, his eyes lingering over a lightly snoring Xander before returning to Albus, “well, one of them anyway. And you,” he said, taking a step forward, a move which made Albus feel a little uncomfortable, “are Albus Potter, son of Harry and Ginny Potter.” He didn’t look impressed by this, a brief flutter of emotion passed over his face, but it was erased before Albus could even identify it. Albus rolled his eyes, not wanting this to be another conversation about his parentage, he shot back:
“And you are Tristan Magnus: son of...?” Tristan’s face went dark for a moment but he soon smoothed it out and allowed a brief smirk to touch his lips before answering.
“Son of Philomela Lark. I don’t have a dad. Don’t need one.” He said it very matter-of-factly, as if he didn’t care. Albus still couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable, especially since he guessed that Tristan’s bravado was mostly a front. Albus resolved not to enquire further about his father or his whereabouts.
“Is your mum a witch?” Albus thought this was a safe question, since he had mentioned his mother’s name with relative ease, but the answer he received was full of tension.
“Yes,” Tristan replied slowly, “she’s a witch.” He didn’t say anything else on the matter and Albus didn’t particularly feel like making him open up. He grasped around in his tired thoughts for another change of subject when Tristan started rolling up the cuffs of his jacket, reminding Albus of his earlier absence.
“Where were you earlier? I can’t remember seeing you in the common room.” Although Albus recalled Tristan sitting at the Gryffindor table, he couldn’t remember him following with the rest of the first years after the feast. The boy looked slightly shifty at Albus’ question, but still cast him a small smirk, shrugging his shoulders dismissively before answering.
“I wasn’t too hungry so I said I needed the toilet and I went exploring.” He spoke casually and Albus was surprised, and slightly impressed that he managed to get away with it. He sat up properly now, his weary state altered to one of relative alertness. Tristan sat on the end of the bed and continued his story; like Albus, he was glad to have landed on a safe topic at last.
“I walked round the grounds a bit; nearly bumped into Professor Weylin though near the Whomping Willow - I think he’d come from the Game Keeper’s house. I thought I was done for then, but he seemed distracted, so I was alright. I walked right up to the Quidditch grounds “ I can’t wait to play, I play at my uncle’s house a lot.” Albus looked at him with a puzzled expression and Tristan expanded.
“He has a lot of land and I don’t have any siblings but he has three children. You saw one of them actually: Morgana Lark?” He looked to Albus to register any recognition. It took him a moment, but he recalled that she, with the dark tresses, was one of the newest recruits to Slytherin house. A look of surprise must have registered on Albus’ face as Tristan shifted slightly uncomfortably before glancing up with some defiance.
“You could say that being in Slytherin runs in the family.” He smiled bitterly to himself, as if sharing some private joke that only he knew about and continued. “I imagine father would have been most disappointed to find out I was in Gryffindor, not that he ever will. So would my mum if she...” he trailed off and shook his head a little before continuing.
“She’s not too bad though,” Albus creased is brow and Tristan clarified, “Morgana...she’s not so bad, for a Slytherin, anyway. She may act like a self-important nightmare, but she could be a lot worse considering some of my family.” Albus didn’t think it wise to ask him to expand on that; instead, he offered some information about himself.
“I have a lot of family here as well. We practically make up half of Hogwarts!” Albus was pleased to see Tristan crack his first genuine smile so he continued enthusiastically. “I have a brother, James, in the third year. He tries his best to make as much fun of me as possible, but he’s alright really. I also have eight cousins currently at Hogwarts ranging from first to the seventh year. Rose Weasley, our fellow first year Gryffindor, is my cousin, but also my best friend.” Tristan laughed lightly, one eyebrow raised in surprise.
“Eight cousins? And those are just the ones actually at Hogwarts? That’s quite a big family you’ve got,” he said with a smile. Albus rolled his eyes and nodded his head in assent.
“You have no idea,” he mumbled as he thought of his various cousins, aunts and uncles. There were so many, it was often difficult to keep track. Tristan looked wistful for a moment, though a smile still lingered on his face.
“It must be nice, having a big family. I don’t have any brothers or sisters “ just my cousins Morgana, Maximus and Mathias. They’re all right, but it’s not the same as having siblings,” he finished a touch sadly. Albus shifted awkwardly for a moment before emitting a short breathy laugh.
“Having siblings isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I always get James’ hand-me-downs and he hardly ever lets up in his teasing. And Lily, my sister, always blames me for the things she does wrong and gets away with it because she’s the ‘baby.’” Albus made a slight face at this which prompted a laugh from Tristan. “If I didn’t have Rose come over and visit me all the time, I think my siblings would drive me crazy,” Albus said half jokingly, half sincerely. Tristan smiled briefly and ran a hand through his dark, tousled hair.
“I look forward to meeting Rose, I haven’t really met anyone from Hogwarts yet, you know, what with skipping the meal and getting back so late, just you and the girl who let me in.” Albus looked at him inquisitorially. It made sense that if Tristan had not been at dinner, he wouldn’t have been with all the other Gryffindors when Professor Longbottom told them the password, so would need to have asked someone to let him in.
“What girl? Was she a first year too?” Albus enquired, wondering who on earth would have been up so late. Tristan gave a small nod in answer to the question before answering verbally. “Yeah, she was. She was alone in the common room and she heard my conversation with the Fat Lady who I was unsuccessfully trying to charm into letting me into Gryffindor, when she opened the portrait hole. She said she couldn’t sleep, but she looked rather tired and preoccupied.” He paused for a moment looking pensive.
“She was very pretty though, tired, but pretty. I think she said her name was Effie...” Albus frowned slightly, wondering why she had been up so late, she had seemed fine when Albus had left her in the evening. He must have not spoken for a couple of minutes because when he looked up again Tristan was standing.
“I better get to bed. Big day tomorrow and everything...” He walked towards the bed and was about to pull back the covers when he spotted something on his bed. He picked it up gingerly and inspected it. As far as Albus could see in the dark, it was a white envelope with an emerald seal on the back and a slight crease appeared in Tristan’s brow as he inspected it. He turned to Albus, waving the envelope in the air.
“Did you see who put this here?” Albus shook his head. The only people he’d seen in the dormitory were Frank, Xander, Tobias and Theron and he’d gone to bed last and hadn’t seen anyone pay the slightest bit of attention of the unattended sixth bed.
“No, I didn’t, sorry mate. Maybe Neville “ Professor Longbottom “ put it there before we came up.” Tristan nodded absent-mindedly, running his finger over the edges of the envelope before placing it in his bedside cabinet and slipping his jacket off. Albus heard what he assumed was Tristan changing into his pyjamas and was surprised when he also heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He rolled over onto his side facing his newest room-mate and was met with an outstretched hand holding a sprig of some sort of plant in its palm.
“Have this,” Tristan said, waving the plant slightly, “you put it under your pillow and it’s supposed to help you sleep, ward off nightmares and stuff,” he said as explanation. Albus stretched out his hand and took it. It felt fresh, as if it had been very recently picked. “It usually works for me anyway.” He threw a lop-sided grin at Albus very briefly before composing his face and shifting his weight onto his back foot, taking him closer to his own bed.
“Goodnight, sleep well, hopefully.” He turned on his heel and walked over to his bed and slipped under the covers until all Albus could see was an indistinguishable mound of duvet.
“Thanks...goodnight, Tristan.” The boy gave no indication he’d heard and Albus did as instructed, placing the plant underneath his pillow sceptically. He didn’t see how a random piece of plant was going to help him sleep. Albus yawned and could feel his eye-lids droop, desperately wanting some rest before class the next morning. He lowered his head onto the pillow and rolled onto his side facing Tristan’s bed. He was vaguely aware that the boy was merely staring wide-awake at the ceiling, not showing any signs he was nearing sleep. The last sound he heard was the groan of bed springs as if someone was rising from their bed, but Albus could not open his eyes to verify this as, consumed by exhaustion and wearied by the length of his first day at Hogwart’s, he plunged into a deep slumber.
Albus Potter and the Midnight Thief by Alice Mac
Chapter Endnotes:
I know this is rather a short chapter - it's the shortest out of the ones I've written so far. I just wanted to do a full character introduction for Tristan. Thanks for reading - I always enjoy getting feedback!