12 Living Arrangements
The twins followed Dumbledore as he lead them to his office, the marble stairs resounding with the steps of all the students who left before them. Dumbledore turned to the twins and asked, "You wouldn't mind me calling the heads of houses to help discuss this, would you?"
The twins shook their heads, so Dumbledore waved his wand, and a glowing blue Phoenix spilled out, and materialized in front of him as he spoke to it, "Go to Minerva, Severus, Filius, and Pomona. We need to discuss placement for Mr. Eumann and Ms. Amaryllis." The apparition turned, and flew through a wall, with John watching it intently, and Oriana wondering what it was.
"Come now, follow me." Dumbledore said to them as he led them up staircases, finally stopping at a gargoyle that was in an alcove. He tapped the Gargoyle with his wand, and it stepped to the side, revealing a small staircase that lead up. He stopped at another door, opened it, and ushered the twins inside. They looked around, finding a manner of small gizmos and trinkets that softly whirred, clicked and warbled as they sat upon the bookshelves.
Portraits were also covering the walls, not unorganized, per se, but still managing to look organized. They had a person usually sleeping in them, sometimes with a small nameplate below them. When they got closer, they saw one of them had the name 'Phineas Nigellus Black - . . . - 1925' and the man in the photo moved, peering down at them from his seat in the frame.
"Never thought I would see one of them in this office ever again." He muttered, mostly to himself. The twins were startled at this and were about to ask, but was interrupted by Dumbledore when he asked them to take a seat.
When they did, Dumbledore saw them seemingly start to sit on air, he was surprised, and was astonished when a red spider web extended from their back, and a whitish liquid flowed from it before it solidified into a chair underneath them. "Excuse the magic sir, we can't exactly sit on chairs as they'll usually break under our weight." John said when they noticed his look.
"What weight do you speak of, and what is the chair's material?" he asked in turn, puzzled at their sentence.
"We are able to absorb our familiars and use the, 'materials', if you will, to help reshape our body. If we have too much, we can compress it with the same materials, bringing our weight up drastically." Oriana explained, making the headmaster nod in understanding.
John continued, "The chair is made out of compressed bone matter, as there is no better way to support us than the body's own skeleton and we had to add veins, to keep it connected to our body."
Dumbledore looked sharply at them when John finished. "And how are you able to shape your bone in that manner?"
"{Since we are metamorphmagi(Pronounced: MAH-GUY for readers info), and other metamorphmagi are supposedly able to shapeshift into other people's appearances, we figured that the bones must have to at least shift unconsciously to accommodate some of those features.}[So whenever we started to learn how to control our unstable shifting, we learned how to control the different parts of body matter.]"
"Interesting." Dumbledore said, before turning to sit down at his desk. He pulled a bowl out of one of the drawers and offered them a "Lemon Drop?"
"[Gladly!]{No thank you.}" As John unwrapped the candy, his eyes flashed, before he put it in his mouth. "Headmaster," Dumbledore looked up at him as he closed the drawer. "Be careful with these candies, others won't give you warning."
Dumbledore's eyes widened, before he smiled at him, "I will take that advice to heart." he said, as he internally panicked at how John was so easily able to sense the light legilimency spell on the candy and what's more, without even putting it in his mouth!
The door behind them opened, and A short man with Mousy brown hair entered, followed by a strikingly tall man in contrast, with sallow cheekbones, a sour look, and a nose that resembled a knife with its definition. A pudgy witch with dirt-stained clothes and hat followed behind, with Professor McGonagall bringing up the rear.
They lined up on the sides of the Headmaster's desk, and looking at the accents on their clothing, the twins duly noted that they were in the same order as the tables in the Great Hall.
"If you will please introduce yourselves, as it will help us settle down in a bed faster." Dumbledore joked.
The twins stood up, as the chair followed the veins, turning them pink as they curled into the back of the twins' shared torso, before the twins split themselves apart, and bowing as they introduced themselves. "[John Eumann Concord], {and Oriana Amaryllis Concord}, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
The teachers, intrigued at the transformation, but holding their tongue, introduced themselves. "Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and Professor of Transfiguration." Minerva said, winking at them.
"Professor Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House, Dueling Champion, and the Charms Professor." The short man said, as he walked up and shook their hands.
"Professor Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House, Potions master and Professor." The sour man said, as he looked at them, giving them a sharp nod.
"Professor Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff and Herbology Professor." The witch said as she gave them a hug, which John returned, before she stepped back.
"What house would you join?" Dumbledore asked as she went back into line. McGonagall waved her wand and chairs were conjured underneath the Professors, which they sat on. The twins followed suit and formed a bench in the same manner as earlier.
"We'd rather not join any house Headmaster." Oriana started. The headmaster nodded for them to continue after raising a hand to silence Severus, who was going to protest. "We learned from our uncle that being in a house increases the connections you will have in the future, but will also come with a label attached to those in each house."
"What would you mean by that, young Amaryllis?" Snape finally asked, looking annoyed at the idea.
"When we learned about the houses, we held no judgement for them, as they were essentially a team that worked together." John answered, earning a small nod from Professor Sprout.
"And why are you answering the question, I asked your sister." Snaped. (You should get it.)
"Very well then." John said. The twins looked at each other, and under the professor's gazes, seemingly swapped places without moving. The twin on the right which was a girl and was originally John, continued talking, "Slytherin is seen as pretentious, 'gits', that was the word, right Oriana?"
The boy now on the left nodded and the girl continued. "They are usually seen as bad people in general and as, forgive the language, as I heard, 'Assholes so uptight, they could shit out a diamond after eating coal.'"
Snape was speechless as the other three Professors were trying to stifle the laughter that was coming from them. "Jo*snicker*John Eumann, watch your *gasp* language!" Professor McGonagall said, but she and the other two professors couldn't contain their laughter as they cried small tears after she said that.
Dumbledore was chuckling to himself as Snape stood up and cast a "Diffindo!", surprising everyone but the twins. The other professors couldn't react in time to Snape's aggressiveness in time as the spell flew toward the still sitting twins.
The spell was an angry red blade that came toward the twins. They did nothing at first, but the girl's ears moved to the top of her head, and claws grew from her hands as the gauntlets glowed. She swiped her hand and caught the spell in midair, holding it in her hands. "This is a new spell, Haven't felt this structure before. Oriana, you might want to study this."
The spell turned from an angry red to a light red as the twin on the left reached out and grabbed it, with scaly hands that it couldn't cut through. "Interesting, I could accomplish this, of course, with a few adjustments." It disappeared. and another one replaced it.
It was a light transparent gray and nearly unnoticeable. The chair underneath them extended a tendril that stretched and grew to form a wall 3 meters thick about 3 meters away from the chair. The twin swiped their scaled hand, and a gash appeared on the wall, nearly toppling it in half, with other, smaller, but not less significant, slashes appearing around it.
Everyone gawked at the sight of them casually catching a severing charm, only to make one that was much stronger. The wall retreated back into the chair, which was then absorbed by the twins as they stood up, and walked over to Snape, who was shaking in fear and anger as sweat dripped down his now snow-white face.
They went back to their original bodies, which then turned into their Shiva form. John opened his eyes, and let their form grow until they towered over the sallow man. "Next time you try to attack me, don't hold back, my defenses are too strong for that pathetic excuse of offense." John said, his voice reaching a pitch that terrified Snape as he looked into three pupils, two wrapped by bands of shades of grey in one eye, and a whirlpool of colors around the other on a grey blank.
The eyes blinked, and changed to black irises, black sclera, and silver dotting around a white pupil. A voice not unlike a hiss came out this time as Oriana spoke. "Don't make it easy for me to copy the spell either, or you'll end up on the wrong side of it."
Snape fell, the only thing catching him being the chair, which flew underneath him as he passed out. The twins, satisfied with their work, separated once more, and sat down on another newly formed bench. "Forgive me for that, but humiliating my family is my bottom line." Oriana said, as she looked towards the scared professors and frowning Headmaster.
"What did you do to him?" asked Dumbledore, concern and anger lacing his tone.
"Simple, we scared him." she responded. "Our familiars are fairly tame, but all of us have emotion and their instincts are ruled by it." Oriana continued. "Attacking ones they considered mother and leader were the worst things he could have done. I lead, and John cares, simple as that." she said motioning to them in that order as their familiars came out around them in a circle.
"The need to harm in order to protect came through from them as an instinctual sense of danger, and that lead to his base instincts kicking in," she said, motioning to the living corpse on the chair, "Causing the flight, instead of fight, response, rendering him unconscious."
Dumbledore stared at her, before nodding slowly, understanding the image she painted for them. "I believe it would be best to give you free roam of the castle grounds, and an empty classroom in order to give you and your familiars privacy. You are also allowed into all the dormitories, but the forest and Hallway is still off limits. House points do not affect you, but detentions are still applicable. Understood?"
John and Oriana nodded, "Thank you Headmaster."
"Filius, there is a spare room on the seventh floor that no one has used in decades. Lead them to it, and let them get accustomed." The small Professor nodded his head, and smiled at the twins as he lead them out the door.
"They are as unique as you told me Minerva. Never did I ever think that Severus would be bested, and only through intimidation." Dumbledore said after a few seconds of silence.
"This is where I say I told you so, Albus. But I reckon it's from Mr. Hadrian that they learned to be defensive. Mr. Hadrian himself is a Muggleborn, and them also being Muggleborn as well will lead to some tensions between some students. Otherwise, they seem to get along perfectly fine so long others do not provoke them."
Dumbledore could only sigh in response.
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Flitwick was leading the twins up the marble staircase, which was picturesque, but not practical in design. They realized why when the staircase moved to a corner that another had moved to, letting them climb up. When they looked down, the stairs below were shifting places, some leading from a hallway, and others leading to dead ends in corners.
"This way please." Professor Flitwick said, motioning toward a hallway. They stepped off the stairs, and they immediately moved to a different hallway. Flitwick lead them past a tapestry that depicted a man nearly being clubbed to death by what looked like trolls wearing tutus.
Yet before they walked by, they both stopped and looked at the wall opposite the tapestry. John looked at Oriana, and she motioned with her head towards the wall, John looked past her head at the wall, before looking shaking his head, then motioning towards Flitwick, who was already ahead of them by quite a bit. Oriana frowned, but let them move forward to catch up.
A few minutes later, Flitwick stopped in front of a room and opened the door to motion the twins inside. They saw there was a large bed on one side of the room, with two smaller ones on the other side. There were two wardrobes sitting in the middle of the wall opposite the door with their trunk and knapsacks in front of them.
"There is a shower in that room." Flitwick said as he motioned to a door in a corner of the room, "I'll be happy to see you and your humor in my class tomorrow." He smiled and nodded at the twins, who nodded back, before leaving. As the door shut behind him, they heard him chuckle as he muttered, "Diamonds, never in my life would I have thought of that."
Oriana looked at John, and they both laughed as they went and got their clothes ready for tomorrow. When they finished, they let their spirits come out, and John gave them a few rules, such as staying in pairs, not making messes, and to go to whatever classes they wanted or could.
They then pulled the mattresses of the beds and put them in a block on the floor before they piled together to sleep. The bear laid down and acted as pillow, while the reptiles curled around feet and hands. The bat hung off the bear's fur, and the bird laid on top of the curled bear, while the cat, dog, and wolf acted as blanket.
John said goodnight, and a tune started to play, as the spirits made their own responses as they settled down to sleep.
