36 36) Hogwarts

The announcement of keeping their luggage on the train rang up and alerted Severus that they were finally nearing to Hogwarts.

The talks of their group had changed from his newfound heirship to many different things. Avery's crush on Laena Greengrass to Mulciber's prank on Mary MacDonald, to Rosier's not so obvious crush on Ava Fawley which had a betting pool about when Rosier was going to ask her out.

He had to admit though that it felt very nice to hang around with boys of Slytherin. The jokes, the fun they had, the not so obvious jabs at each other. It had a charm of its own which Severus found refreshing after a summer of being full busy.

"Well then might be few new girls from Beauxbatons who could be charmed for sure this year", Regulus joked as they each readied themselves.

"Yeah, we sure would have some French beauties in the castle for this year. Why not try our luck then?", Mulciber agreed instantly.

"You will scare the girl first with your brashness Mulciber", Wilkes spoke up amusedly from his face.

"Well for sure you could hardly woo not even one with that charming mouth of yours", Mulciber quipped back from his seat with an amused look on his face fully well enjoying the banter.

"You don't know half these things this charming mouth of mine could do", Wilkes retorted back with mirth in his voice.

"If you two are finished with your insults to each other then we all could agree on that Nott is our best bet for Triwizard Champion", Marcus Avery spoke up from among the chit chat as he went on to the previous topics.

"Oh for Merlin's sake, enough of that tournament. We have already talked about it for more than two hour", Severus spoke irritated as he heard about that blasted tournament again.

Avery sighed, it seemed noone wanted to discuss it more but then again Prince was right. They did had talked about the Triwizard Tournament for more than two hours in their ride.

Rosier sighed at the antics of everyone present there, he could already see that Prince was going to be the first one to snap. The boy was hardly patient if it was not anything related to Potions, it was a little surprising that he snapped after three hours of talking on the same topic. It seemed he was working on his people's skills which was amusing for Rosier as he himself didn't know if it was ever possible for Severus, who had a penchant for closing off to anyone who wasn't in his little tight circle.

The train stopped and the group of Slytherin boys exited the train among the mass of students. The platform of Hogsmeade was filled with laughs and hoots of the returning students. He wondered if many of them considered Hogwarts their second home as the previous Severus did along with Harry Potter and Tom Riddle. On closer thinking perhaps the students do thought so, he had felt a warm air, a feeling of acceptance that he had never felt from a magical institution before. The older Severus had wondered if the magic which has been performed since ages here, have accumulated over and began to create a sentience within the castle. The perfect example of this would be Peeves the Poltiergeist who was formed by the feelings of fun and mischief among the castle members, perhaps this was also the reason why Hogwarts had a warm feeling of home in it.

"Firs'-years over here.  Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!", came a loud voice and Severus looked up to see a familiar figure of half giant. The half giant in mention was more than eleven feet tall with trunk like arms and legs which gave him a strength unparalleled to humans. His ancestry giving him some resilience against spells which bounced over him. He had a wild mane of hair along with thick shaggy beard and black beetle like eyes which glinted from the light of lamp which he was holding.

"What happened Prince, you are looking at the oaf as if you are seeing him for first time?", Regulus asked from Prince's side as he looked at Prince's line of sight.

"I was wondering how in the hell he is kept in a school full of magic when he doesn't even have a wand with him. Filch is a squib but even then Hagrid is a gamekeeper, a type of security job. How will he fare against magic?", Severus spoke slowly as he looked over their group discreetly, he was thankful that his mind was devious enough to change the topic and hide his line of thought very well.

"You do brought out a nice question. Guess, it is another of Dumbledore's barmy decision, my father always says that he is loosing his marbles", Mulciber spoke up with a frown. Dumbledore may be nuts but he was a very powerful wizard which was enough for even him to consider the old wizard carefully. After all he did fought and defeated Grindelwald in a duel which was called the 'duel of ages' for a reason.

"My father do say that Dumbledore is going crazy slowly, his decisions are sometimes too crazy to actually consider and agree on", Regulus agreed as he spoke uo about his father's Orion Black opinion of the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Severus however had different thoughts, the old man was manipulative but he was a good one too. His actions were mostly for the wizarding world, afterall if there was the choice between a single person and the whole wizarding world as well as muggle world? What could he do?, The only method by which a Hocrux could be destroyed was by destroying the container. It would have been not an easy decision to bear the guilt of sacrificing a boy to his death for the good of the Wizarding World. But was he right? Absolutely yes.

The morality of a situation may be considered but if sacrificing one's life resulted in the saving of thousands others then why would a leader not do so. The world was not ideal and being a leader was more hard during a war. Afterall the greatest example would be about what happened after Dumbledore's death, the muggles were started to be hunted like pigs for slaughter. Concentration camps were made and dementors were left on the muggles and muggleborns along with Death Eaters and werewolves who wanted to have their way with them. The only reason the Dark Lord fell was because Dumbledore's plan was somehow successful and his adult self was immaculate in his work. If each of this had strayed then the world would have been doomed for sure. Atleast Dumbledore cared for the boy, which was admirable in his opinion.

The greater good was never perfect or ideal but it was something which was always needed. Bigger nations had made themselves with it, afterall while the 'greater good' was not ideal, it was needed for tough situations and hard complexities.

A concept which many hated in their opinions, but was also something which they will take gladly when their family and people they care for are on the receiving ends for slaughter. Afterall this was the hypocritical nature of humans.

And all of this made Dumbledore more dangerous in his opinion, afterall someone who could sacrifice something like this was not a simple and easy man in his opinion to be dealt with.

__________________________________________________________________________

Send some stones because I want to be high on stones :)