Lorcan Scamander had got to the point in school where classes stoped interesting him and he wanted to take his own path. He was starting to tire of following the ways that previous generations had set before him. Ever since he was sorted in to Slytherin he knew he was unlike any Scamander or Lovegood that had passed. It shocked his family, but from then on he decided he would stop trying to be like them and go where the river took him.

He played Quidditch simply because he was good at it. His interest for the sport had started to wane over the past few months. He Captained well, and although he wasn't the best player on the team the field was easier to navigate than most situations and Keeping was easy enough if you had talent for it. Sometimes he would even opt out from a match and observe the way their team played. Scorpius was gifted as ever, Albus a better seeker than even he himself realised, and the star of the show Colton Drakes was surely destined for greatness. He liked to analyse the patterns, the movement, find manoeuvres that would succeed. It wasn't just about the sport of it for him.

Lorcan devoted his spare time to his own interests, namely that of the pagan idea black magic. Witchcraft at its essence, one could say, harking back to the days when healers were apothecaries and companions were familiars. It was Roman Selwyn who first brought his eyes to these. With that honey-dewed voice, who lay on the dark side of Paradise. To Lorcan he was obvious, but to others who had not tasted the devil's milk he was as sweet and alluring as anything.

Lorcan found such dark an ancient histories were a point of fascination, but Roman? Lorcan could not claim to understand a mind like his. He knew full well that Roman wanted to use him for his skills and interests, but he didn't really care. Roman knew what he wanted, and didn't waste time going about getting it which was something not many others possessed. So when Selwyn asked him to help with a 'little project' he obliged out of sheer curiosity.

"Cook, did you talk to your friends?" Asked Selwyn, not looking up from his reading as the group sat chatting in the common room that night. Zeke Cook was standing in the stairwell kissing a girl's neck when his name was called from the other side of the room.

"Huh?" Asked Zeke with a smirk as he brought his attention away from the girl in his arms. The girl bit her lip as she looked across to Roman, who no one could help but desire. Zeke leaned into to whisper something into her ear and she giggled before leaving to her dorm.

"Put it away, Zeke." Said Scarlett in annoyance. "We get it, and we don't care."

"Sounds like someone's jealous. You want some?" Asked Zeke with a smirk, as he sat down on the sofa, spreading his arms over the top in a confident manner. "What were you saying, Selwyn?" Zeke asked with a sniff.

"You said you could find me some bodies." Roman said flatly, looking up from his book with a lazy gaze.

"Yeah, easy." He responded. "They want in."

"Good. What about you Maeve?" Roman asked the girl next to him. Lorcan looked up at her and the two exchanged a fleeting glance before looking away quickly. "We both know you have better taste in friends than Cook."

"At least mine are purebloods." Interrupted Cook with a look of indignation. Of all that group, Maeve seemed the least intensely focused on her ancestry. Rumour had it that Zeke wasn't pureblood himself, but he gave off the impression he was so no one ever bothered to really search further.

"Well, Zeke, yours are about as thick as you so they're not much use."

That prompted a snort from Scarlett and Roman's lips upturned to smirk at his old friend's little dig. Zeke was very easy to insult, it turned out.

"Lorcan here's been helping me with my research." Said Roman, changing the tone and bringing Lorcan into the conversation. Throughout the exchange, he had been sitting at a separate table working on some translations, naturally eavesdropping on the group. Although Roman had his back to him, somehow he knew. Lorcan looked up, his eyes meeting Maeve's who was looking at him. Him and Maeve had always been close, but he had never really engaged with her other set of friends much before and she had never forced him in to being around them either.

"Yeah." Was all he said with a small shrug, unsure how to respond to Roman. Was it an invitation or an exposure?

"Let's see it then, Scamander." Proposed Greengrass who was sitting in the group. They all knew that the name Scamander was often not associated with traditional pureblood ideals like perhaps Selwyn or Greengrass were.

Lorcan found himself leafing through his parchments and pulled out one with a list of initials. He tapped it with his wand and the initials turned into full names.

"These are the lists of all the students with ancient ancestry in the school." Said Roman as all eyes were on him, or perhaps on the paper. It was a clear power move. His name was almost the top. "These are our targets. They may not be purebloods any more, but they have bloodlines that hark back the age in which magic was stronger than we could imagine. We need them."

"Blankenship. Who the hell is Octavius Blankenship?" Interrupted Zeke as he eyed the top of the list with a frown. Lorcan knew from his research that the name Cook did not come up.

"He's our answer. So is every name on this list." Responded Roman.

"What about Potter?" Asked Maeve, her eyes scanning the group a little apprehensively. The name Potter and Weasley came up more than once.

"Yeah, those Weasleys breed like rabbits." Added Scarlett.

"We need to keep an eye on them. Again I expect none of you to run your mouths to the wrong people." Roman said with a sharp look.

"Now," Said Roman, as the gathering hung on every word that left his lips. "Lorcan,"

"Are you in or out?"

He asked, bringing out his wand. Lorcan felt the eyes on him. Waiting, expecting. How could he possibly refuse?

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•
A/N

Kind of got lazy this chapter; need some more inspiration? Would be great to hear if there's anything you want from this book e.g. which characters would you like to see more from, more quidditch? ideas/headcanons, any changes in li or distracted flings? Anything will do because you're ideas are valid!

Although this is my fic, I'd love for bits of it to be more collaborative, so any thoughts on ideas or whatever would be great. Also another reminder that side characters (particularly non cis-female Circle members) are wanted, just to round out the story a bit. To be honest, if your character is nuanced enough, their labels don't reaaally matter. But sometimes they can help make them more nuanced and add depth (e.g. a trans woman). But ultimately substance over style . You don't even have to fill out a whole form. For example, you will notice the additional character Colton Drakes in this chapter, who is essentially a Quidditch Superstar and probably a massive asshole but kind of charismatic because he's hot (common theme, lmao?)

On that note, I think I'm going to do a Yule ball section. So if you want to do a brief (or full if you like) form for a Durmstrang/Beauxbatons character that will appear to spice things up for a bit, please do! We like drama.

I have various secrets I don't want to share with you yet, but I really want Albus to have a love interest (preferably lgbt+ because I've noticed the relationships in this book are mostly heteronormative much to my horror lmao). And this is just a thought, but what if Roman's cousin or something comes, and he is hot af and a little intimidating and is attracted to Albus which is problematic because Albus is a Potter... but anyways we digress. Hmu if you'd be interested in making/collabing on a character for that.

(Am I doing a Yule ball because of Albus? May be. Will all your characters' stories with their li climax at the Yule Ball? No, otherwise the whole ass book would be Yule ball but the lucky few will hit jackpot.)

Also if you haven't clocked, I have no idea where this book is going. I'm the sort of writer who loses interest if they have everything planned as there is nothing left to discover. Will it come back to bite me? Probably. So nothing is fixed and who knows where this book will take us.