Spinners Of Fate
Chapter 1: Welcome To Hogwarts
Hogwarts glowed almost ominously in the distance as the black-cloaked figure skirted the area outside the Forbidden Forest. It glanced over a round shoulder precariously, clutching the silver handle of a wand for comfort and respite from the scared feeling that crept up its spine. Shuddering, the figure returned its gaze to the castle in the distance, staring longingly at it with dark blue, feminine eyes. A ghost of a smile played on thin lips, and the figure continued long, quick strides, glancing over its shoulder every few seconds.
Suddenly, a red light flashed at the figure's side and it was thrown sideways into the trunk of a looming tree, scattering pine needles all around the crumpled figure. The gray wand flung several feet into the Forbidden Forest, and the figure scrambled to its feet, gasping for air.
Another figure, a dark-haired woman was many meters away, near the Great Lake. She ran towards the scrambling figure, a bent, talon-like wand grasped in her right hand. The dark-haired woman shrieked, laughing madly as the figure leaned heavily against the trunk, searching for its wand,
"No! Stay there, little blood traitor!"
Bellatrix Lestrange thrust her wand into the hooded figure's throat, and the figure gasped, gripping peeling bark with long, pale fingers as if she were afraid she would melt into the grass ground. Bellatrix Lestrange smiled viciously, her extremely dark brown eyes flashing as her wand dug into the figure's pale throat. She cackled under her breath and shot a half-hearted glance at Hogwarts,
"Running to Dumbledore, are you? Traitor! Filthy Half-blood!"
The figure bit its lip and took a sharp inhale of breath, her fingers trembled from her grip on the peeling bark and she closed her eyes, as if she were about to jump across a canyon. Bellatrix snatched at the figure's left forearm and pulled it back, sneering madly.
The Death-Eater rubbed at the Dark Mark, and hissed angrily under her breath,
"You don't deserve this. Nor do you deserve to live, Russell," Something flickered in Bellatrix's eyes, and Belinda Russell saw it as unrestrained, uncontrolled madness. She stared straight into Belinda's eyes, brown meeting blue and smirked, sending shivers of fear down Belinda's spine,
"I doubt the Dark Lord will revoke me if I… destroy a nasty little Blood Traitor like yourself…"
Bellatrix stepped away from Belinda, who crumpled to the dry, hard ground, tears streaming down her pale white cheeks as she realized what was to come. Looking up, she saw that Bellatrix Lestrange had raised her bent, twisted wand, began to smirk happily and Belinda froze, bracing herself for the torture that was to come…
"CRUCIO!"
---S---
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows flew to the floor, hit the girl in the bottom bunk bed on the head, and then fell loudly to the beige floor as Belinda Russell jerked from her sleep and sat straight up, gasping as the girl below her groaned.
"Belinda… you need to stop sleeping with your books." A dark-haired girl's head popped out to the side and Belinda jumped in her spot on the bed. Diana Fox sighed and glared into the other sixteen-year-olds eyes, as if she wanted nothing more than to clout Belinda on the head with the half-opened book on the floor.
Belinda took a deep breath and looked into her friend's reassuring green eyes. She replied, still shivering from her nightmare and speaking with a shaky tone,
"S-Sorry, Diana. Nightmare… gave me a fright."
Diana rolled her eyes and crawled back into her bed. Diana Aileen Fox was Belinda's closest friend. She was a tall, gangly girl with long, voluminous black hair, bright green eyes and thick, nerdy glasses. She was also extremely clever, even more so than Belinda and was the only reason Belinda was on honor roll. (She disliked applying herself to schoolwork.)
Most importantly, Diana was part of Belinda's circle of friends that read all the Harry Potter books.
Belinda curled the red comforter around her thin, boyish body, sighing contently as the details of her nightmare slipped through her thoughts like water through fingers. The only thing she could remember was Bellatrix Lestrange crucio-ing a hooded figure, but the conversations between the two buzzed incoherently in Belinda's thoughts. The teen rubbed at her dark blue eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"At least I've finished reading Harry Potter. No more crazy nightmares for me."
Diana appeared from the side of the bed once more and picked the heavy book delicately off the floor by its spine. Dusting the top of it with her hand, she placed it into one of the bookcases near the door and spoke, with tired resignation hanging on her words,
"Do you know when Candra and Leila will be here for the book discussion?" Diana turned her head to look at Belinda, who fixed her friend with a stern look. Candra Anderson and Leila LaFoi were the other two of their Potterverse circle, and they had finished The Deathly Hallows a week before.
Scrambling from the top bunk, Belinda stretched her arms and muttered,
"Dunno. What time is it?"
Diana glanced at the heavy clock on the wall above their desk and replied in monotone,
"Noon. I asked them to bring snacks, so they'll probably bring lunch instead…" Diana grabbed Deathly Hallows from the bookcase and flung open the door, Belinda followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Belinda fetched a granola bar from the cupboards and settled herself on a brown, leather couch.
Diana was moving the furniture around with unseeing eyes. She had always been a freak when it came to book groups. Especially their Potterverse Analysis Group. (Aptly named PAG by a bored Candra.) They were in Diana's house, and Belinda had stayed the night, so, as usual, Diana set herself to making her guests feel the most comfortable in her home.
Chewing on the chocolate granola bar, Belinda forced herself to look back on the dream, trying desperately to strain her memory and remember the details.
Bellatrix Lestrange…
Hooded Figure…
Crucio… Ah, there was a new one…
"There," Belinda was flung from the throng of her thoughts by a proud-sounding Diana, who's hands rested on her hips in an impressive gesture. She grinned at the brown armchairs that were surrounding the sandalwood coffee table happily. Belinda had always thought she should be a decorator, she had a natural affinity for moving things around and making them look cozy and fashionable.
"No!" Diana would've shouted. "I'm much too clever for those things, Belinda. A scholar, a professor or even a doctor! Now those would be my kind of jobs!"
At that moment, the doorbell rang, and Diana and Belinda directed their attention to the door.
"Oh, good!" Diana ran to the door. "Just in time!"
She opened the door and stepped aside for the two people coming in and Belinda fixed them with a glittering, bemused blue-eyed stare.
Candra Anderson was the first one she noticed. She was an extremely short, thin girl with a pretty face and curly, white-blond hair. At the moment, she was carrying a great large bag of candy, which Diana was staring disparagingly at. Shoving the bag under one arm, she waved at Belinda with a sort of bubbly happiness that made Belinda lurch.
"Mornin', Bee!"
Belinda twitched her eyebrows. Bee. That damn nickname of hers that she absolutely hated with a passion. Smiling falsely, she greeted Candra,
"Morning, Can-Can."
Candra puckered her lips in a childish, disapproving fashion. Candra despised being called Can-Can, and Belinda was positive that calling Candra something like slut or whore would've been a step up from Can-Can.
Behind Candra, Leila LaFoi sauntered in with a slightly ferocious scowl and Belinda guessed that she had finally, finally dumped her boyfriend. Leila LaFoi was a surly, average girl with thick, sleek brown hair and narrow, light brown eyes. She too, was carrying a bag of candy in her arms, but was hugging it so tightly to her chest, that Belinda was positive that the candy was being crushed.
"Dick Dawson is officially no longer my boyfriend." She announced flatly, angrily throwing the bag of candy on the table. Her brown eyebrows stitched together in her anger, and her fists were balled up at her sides. Belinda unconsciously inched away from the fearsome girl.
"Yeah!" Candra flopped down beside Belinda on the couch. "You should've seen Leila! She kicked Dawson right where it hurts after he slapped her! We left the poor boy screamin' in pain!"
Belinda and Diana chuckled. And Belinda flung her limp, lifeless auburn hair over her shoulders, Leila glanced at her and Belinda saw unshed tears in the poor teens eyes, she reassured her friend,
"Don't worry, Leila. There's plenty of fish in the sea. Dick's just well… y'know, a dick."
Leila smiled and flopped down on an armchair, pulling The Deathly Hallows from her backpack and placing it on the coffee table. Diana smiled and sat in a different armchair, opposite from the occupied couch. Benignly, Diana spoke,
"Now then, let's get this PAG meeting started shall we?"
And so, the four sat, debating several things from Snape, to Dumbledore, to the exact meaning behind the whole Lily-Snape relationship. Truth be told, Belinda tuned them out. Diana, Candra and Leila all, still disliked Snape even after Deathly Hallows, something that Belinda couldn't understand.
With a triumphant, inward smirk, Belinda realized that she had been the only one to still believe in Snape's loyalty even after The Half-Blood Prince. Well, Belinda had a fictional crush on the poor guy, and that started during the first book. It was bad boy syndrome, she'd supposed.
Diana, who was talking animatedly about how cute the Prince's Tale was, stopped mid-sentence, and Belinda was drawn from her thoughts to the coffee table where The Deathly Hallows had sat. Candra and Leila were both staring at the book too, and Belinda inched forward to see why everyone was staring at it.
When she realized why, her dark blue eyes widened in shock.
The Deathly Hallows was glowing.
It emitted a light, forget-me-not blue glow and all four of them had jumped from the couches and armchairs to gather around the book. Diana held her arm protectively in front of all of them, looking at the book from the top of her thick-rimmed glasses. She said, quietly,
"Don't touch it."
All three of the girls rolled their eyes as Diana waved a hand over the cover in an experimental sort of way. And Belinda had wondered what the heck was going on. Not phrasing her thoughts, she wondered if she was still asleep, and that this was all some strange, creepy dream.
It was then that the glow stopped. Candra blinked confusedly and spoke what Belinda was thinking,
"It's stopped."
"I know." Diana answered, looking at the book curiously as if it were a strangely shaped cheerio, and not a freakishly glowing book on a coffee table. She outstretched her arm and took the book carefully up from the coffee table…
Belinda felt as though her naval was being pulled from behind by a large hook as she inched closer towards the book. Realizing that she was not moving by her own accord, she screamed as her face was flung into the cover and she shut her eyes tightly. Around her, she could hear Leila, Diana and Candra screaming as well. Were they still in Diana's living room? No, they were with her, she could feel a hand gripping her bicep.
With a loud slapping sound, Belinda found herself face planting into a flagstone floor. Heaving her shaking body up, she finally gained the courage to open her eyes. She gasped and fell on her butt, looking around her with large, scared eyes.
Candra, Leila and Diana were also looking around quickly and in the same position as her. They were inside of a stone castle, close to a stone stairwell and an adjacent room that was positioned right in front of them. Belinda had a sinking feeling as all four of the girls dragged themselves up from the flagstone floor. And this sinking feeling was only confirmed as the doors that lead to the adjacent room opened…
And there stood Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, his crystal-blue eyes twinkling almost mischievously as they gazed around at the four teenagers that stood in front of his office door.
"I daresay this is the strangest thing that has happened to me by far. Do come in."
---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---
This was a little project that had been in my computer for ages and ages and ages and I decided, "Oh what the hell, I'll give it a shot.". I daresay it has been a very fun project so far and I had a wondrous time coming up with names and plot lines.
That dream in the beginning of this chapter does actually have a meaning by the way. It sort of sets the stage for what's to come later on.
--ST