Defence and Mayhem(OLD VERSION)

The Tale of a Follower

Abraxas's life changed on the first day of his second year at Hogwarts. Not that he realised that at that time…

He was sitting at the Slytherin table, looking at the new additions to the student body, clapping politely each time a student got sorted into his house. Much to his dismay, there were a lot of mudbloods who got into the school, but at least none were sorted to the most prestigious house of Slytherin.

Until one was.

Tom Riddle. When he was sorted the Slytherins acted the same way they did with any other, but as soon as they got to the common room, away from the rest of the houses they made one thing clear; while outside they will put on a united front, behind closed doors Riddle was nothing. The absolute bottom of the hierarchy.

And they could do whatever they wanted. Slughorn was too eager for the good graces of their families to do anything, and no other staff knew. He was an outcast.

But for them to keep the boy in check and to keep the house up to its name, they had to keep an eye on him. And that's where Abraxas came in. As a Malfoy, he was the epitome of pureblood grace and manners and he was still young so it wouldn't seem weird for him to keep watch on the others' actions.

His first interaction with Riddle was… unsettling.

He stood in front of Riddle's dorm room, since all of the rooms at Slytherin were single rooms, and knocked on the door.

It opened, but Riddle wasn't in front of it. Instead, the said boy was sitting on his bed, his head in a book that was for Abraxas's own grade, his hand that wasn't holding the book had his wand pointed at the door. Only when Abraxas let himself in did the younger boy bother to look at him.

"On behalf of my house I am to give you these books on proper etiquette and the Slytherin hierarchy," Abraxas said, raising his head high to show his authority over the situation. But Riddle didn't seem impressed.

The only reply Abraxas got was a dismissive "Thank you, would that be all?"

He was mad, obviously.

He bothered to come himself, he- the Malfoy heir, one of the Slytherins at the top of the hierarchy despite his age, he who had a family with powerful political force came to this insignificant boy's room himself to give him books that were passed in pureblood society for generations, and this absolute nobody dares to disrespect him?! He was not having it. He walked closer to the younger, about to give him a piece of his mind, to remind him of his place, but then he saw them.

Riddle's eyes.

Those eyes were looking at him, analysing his every movement, without any hint of fear in them. Quite the opposite, actually. Riddle was looking at him as if he was trying to search for any weakness he could find in the olders' actions. And the small dark smile that appeared on Riddle's face but didn't quite reach his eyes told Abraxas that he found one.

Abraxas, who realised that the mudblood managed to make the carefully constructed mask that he was so proud of as a Malfoy fade into careless rage thus leaving him exposed and out of control couldn't afford to stay in the presence of the other for another minute, so he hurriedly picked up his wounded pride and fled after a small formal goodbye.

After that, he avoided Riddle unless absolutely necessary. The boys' ability to make him lose his cool while doing almost nothing was dangerous for his image, so he picked the easy route- hence his avoidal. He actually managed quite well, with them only meeting to get back the etiquette books which took less than a minute, and small instances in the common room where Riddle liked to stay when the rest of the Slytherins preferred to enjoy the nice weather.