Expelliarmus! Aha! Hermione would be so proud that I have been keeping up on my spell work!
Before I continue, a big thank you to all who have been reading! However, I think it best to shed some light on a particular thing - in regards to Regina's status as Prefect and Head Girl, I am taking a liberty - this was due to an idea I had of imagining Regina in school and thinking that she would definitely be Queen Bee, ASB President, head cheerleader and the leader of the debate team because that would be what her mother would expect of her. So when it came to this, I wanted her to be more than the norm. If you follow my friend Harry Potter's stories, you'll notice that you're not supposed to be a prefect until your 7th year. I wanted her to be the exception because I felt if anyone would be, it would be Regina - daughter of Cora Mills. So if that throws you, so sorry plumdrop!
This chapter is shorter, quite frankly because Biffy told me to cut out all of the extra fluff. I know, that's rich coming from a dandy like him! (If you want them longer, please comment!)
Let me know your thoughts, and if I mess up HP cannon feel free to comment - however I will not accept any earwax flavored beans along with! (Just chocolate frogs please!) All mistakes are entirely our own!
RuffledParasol
The Raven Haired Girl
The blonde second year wasn't sure whether she was freezing cold or burning hot. The stormy rain pelted down on her causing goose bumps to rise on her pale skin. But the thick hand me down robes she wore were like a burning inferno causing her to sweat buckets under the heavy garb.
She grasped at her hood, pulling the edges closer around her face as she made her way through the muddy grounds.
It had been a few weeks after the night where she had learned the tall Slytherin prefects name. Regina. And yet in those few weeks to follow she had seen little to nothing of the girl Mills girl. However she had seen increasingly more and more of the boy in which the swarthy brunette had been talking to.
She had tried to deny what she was doing, but she had subconsciously taken it upon herself to find out as much about him as she could. His name was Robin Locksley. Best friend of Cedric Diggory. Ravenclaws best chaser and part time hunstman as he came back with hats and scarves made of small animals skins.
He was always out in the woods, Emma had noticed upon her many treks about the school grounds, venturing out to the edges of the forbidden forest. This particular rainy day, the second year was making her way to her favorite Care of Magical Creatures class when she noticed the boy making his way to the edge of the forest. She immediately perched herself behind the large rocks above the grounds keepers hut and watched as the boy made his way, unnoticed by all, to the forest beyond. The deep green of his pants and vest blended in with the foliage. Then as soon as he stepped foot into the thicket he promptly turned around, trudging his way back up the hill.
Emma stood confused until she realized that his projectory was heading straight to her hiding spot behind the large boulder. She darted, heading down the opposite side of the hill just before the boy could catch sight of her.
"Em!" Came the voice of her best friend, Ruby Lucas. "Where've you been? And why are you out of breath, that's normally my game."
The blonde heaved as she caught up to the thin brunette standing in the mass of students waiting to go into the forest where the giant held his classes.
"I was out-" She replied, breathing still ragged as she had ran faster than her borrowed Moontrimmer broom could go on steroids, "Rubes, I just saw the weirdest thing-"
But before she could finish the harsh whisper of her friend cut her off, "Well it'll have to wait since you're late butt got us to the back of the line!"
Emma looked around, immediately noticing that they were indeed in the back of all of the second years in the class. She sighed, as that never boded well since the giant always seemed to pick the students in the back to come up as examples since he believed that 'everyone should have a fair chance to touch the creatures.' Normally she would be pleased, since she rather liked seeing them up close, however as today they were examining Flesh Eating-Slug's, Emma figured she rather fancied her fingers more.
However as luck would have it, while in the midst of her thoughts the class had pressed on and she now found herself in the direct line of sight of the giant at the dead end of the line.
"Any volunteers for today's lesson?" The immense man said with such alacrity, it almost made the blonde forget that the price of volunteering would be the loss of some very desirable flesh and a week in the hospital wing.
"Ahh, how about you in the back," the giant said, "come on you lot, make room - everyone deserves a turn!"
Emma's gulped as she clutched her fingers for what could be the very last time.
xxx
"So where were you before class today, Blondie?"
The smell of Cornish pasties and boiled potatoes wafted through the great hall as the whole of the school sat down for supper. Emma had been 'out of it' the whole day, as Ruby had put it, only now seeming somewhat responsive as she had two full sausages and a plate of hash browns down her throat.
"I said I was out," she responded. After spending the remainder of the day with Madame Pomfrey magically conjuring skin regrowth solutions for her fingers, since the Flesh Eating-Slugs had inevitably taken a liking to her taste, she had had a lot of time to think about what she had witnessed at the edge of the forest. She had decided to take more time to gather information about the oddity of the Lockesly boy before telling her best friend. She loved the girl, but she knew the first person she would turn to would be her older friend Mary Margaret, and it was her she knew she could not trust as the girl had proven she couldn't keep a secret to save her life.
It was rumored that it was for that exact reason that the Slytherin's hated Gryffindors more than usual. Ever since Emma had arrived at the school word had spread that in their 3rd year, Mary Margaret and Regina Mills had been close friends, nearly inseparable, shocking everyone that a Gryffindor and a Slytherin could get along, until one day.
The details of what had happened no one seemed to know, however the story always included a boy, a secret being told, and the infamous Cora Mills coming down to the school itself resulting in the Gryffindor girl and the Slytherin prefect never talking to each other again.
Emma chewed on her sausage, making that her third.
"I haven't seen Regina around all day." She whispered before realizing that she was vocalizing her thoughts yet again.
"Who? Regina, as in Regina Mills? Head bitch of Slytherin house. That Regina?" The wolf like girl spat, her overly large canine's showing making her look more like a creature Emma had seen in one of her read throughs of her Mythical Creatures books.
The blonde was sure that the girl was about to squirt her pumpkin juice out of her nostrils at the rate that she was speaking.
"Yeah." Emma replied noncommittally as her friend continued to blubber on. Her eyes scanned the Slytherin table, landing on the tall, platinum blonde and somewhat scary looking girl that the Slytherin prefect seemed to hang out with most. There was no Regina, however out of the corner of her eye the signature forest green of the Locksley boy's garb came into view. Making his way down the hall to his spot between the Ravenclaw quidditch team.
His hair was matted and slightly damp as if he had been outside. However no one seemed to notice as the boys around him slid over the make way for him to sit.
Emma huffed. There was something odd there.
"Emma!"
The blonde jerked back as a pair of badly manicured fingernails snapped in front of her eyes.
Emma whacked at the hand, as Ruby huffed, "You're doing it again!"
"Geeze Rubes, give me a heart attack! Gosh, you're worse than professor Snape when he goes off on whatever poor sap he feels like picking on that day - you know he gave that Leroy kid detention for a whole week for nothing!" Emma spat. However the moment the words were out of her mouth she felt her stomach plummet and not due to the overabundance of sausage residing in it.
Her friends face had gone completely white like the ghosts that sometimes roamed through the school. Ruby's wide eyes were the size of what Emma imagined professor Hagrid's dinner plates must be as they stayed trained directly above where the blonde sat.
"Interesting Miss Swan," came the voice that made Emma wish she hadn't inhaled that last sausage as it was fighting to come back upstream. "50 points from Gryffindor for that remark. And as your rewrite of your cheated essay was something below the average of a first year, you can rewrite it again, this time double the length, in the time that you've been twiddling your thumbs in detention."
Emma turned, the looming figure of the gruesome Professor Severus Snape towering directly above her, "But Professor, my detention ends in 2 days, I can't finish another rewrite by then."
She felt a sharp kick from under the table from Ruby and Emma nearly smacked herself as she felt the excuse leave her mouth.
The slimy corners of the vicious professors thin lips curled up into an almost devious smirk as if he had been waiting for her to say those exact words.
"In that case, it will be extended- for a month."
xxx
Emma's head bobbed violently as her neck snapped back up almost giving her whiplash. The dim lighting of the dungeons in which she found herself serving her detention was causing her to fall asleep. With the droning vibration of Professor Snape yet again grilling an unfortunate student playing as background noise and the wafting of an almost lavender scent from the many sleeping potions gone wrong, she figured her stone desk might make as a lovely napping spot.
However catching the eye of the black clad professor she decided against it and focused her eyes back on her paper. That was until the entire class room around her started moving. It appeared as if due to their galling incompetence, Professor Snape had condemned the 6th years to social suicide and ordered them to find new partners not of their same house. A resentful mumble of shared hatred reverberated through the room as students shuffled awkwardly towards foreign desks.
Emma put her head back down, trying once again to focus in on the double long re-rewrite of her essay that she had a month to complete. However all hope was lost when the sight of an approaching object in front of her distracted her gaze. She quickly looked up to see what was blocking her view and nearly gulped.
She could have sworn she hadn't seen the Mills girl at all in class, but there she stood in front of her. Long hair, pulled back into a french braid, as real as the 4 waffles she had eaten that morning, which were now spinning in her stomach. 'Oh Crap,' she realized somewhere through her minds ramblings. The Slytherin prefect was definitely speaking to her and all she could do was gape.
"Is this seat taken?" She finally made out.
"Uh-" Emma mumbled, surprised that the girl who had been occupying her thoughts for the last few nights was standing directly in front of her, and talking to her no less, "N-no! No it's not!"
Geeze Swan, keep your cool!
"Perfect."
Without another word the Slytherin girl placed her book bag atop of the right side of the blondes detention desk, settling into the chair aside Emma before the Gryffindor could speak.
The 2nd years mind immediately went back to the night prior, down in the overly stuffed chair of the Gryffindor common room, where her best friend had grilled her on her insistent speaking about the brunette Slytherin.
"Have you even spoke to her?" Ruby said, making her way through her second box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.
Emma grabbed at the small box, dumping the small beans into her hand and sorting out the Cinnamon candies, putting the rest back.
"No, but-" Emma didn't even know where she was going with that. She had no idea why she was so preoccupied with the whereabouts of a girl she had never even had a conversation with. Nor did she know why it had not sat well with her when she saw the Gryffindor prefect Killian spying on her while she was talking with the Locksley boy after hours. But she shook her head before she could analyze her thoughts to much more, as she was sure her merciless best friend would see to it better than she.
"Well, does she even know you're alive? Cause if not then that definitely makes you a stalker Em, and that's not a good reputation to have."
"What are you talking about Rubes?"
"You talking about her all the time!" The girl said, through candy covered teeth. Emma had always found her friends eating habits slightly revolting. The way in which she ate everything as if it were a slab of raw meat made her stomach slightly turn. However she guessed that her friend didn't judge her habit of eating most things straight out of the jar and repeatedly abusing the double dipping rule, so she couldn't complain much.
"Why don't you trying saying 'hi' to her next time you decide to spy on her from a distance. Maybe your obsession will actually become less creepy."
"I'm not obsessed!" Emma defended, nearly shooting an unusually hot cinnamon bean out of her nose.
"Uh-huh," Ruby said, with a knowing smile, "then say hi."
Now sitting in the cold dungeon as the prefect girl sat directly across from her, she found herself at a loss for words.
However just as soon as she was about to verbalize a 'hello' to the girl, the booming voice of the professor rang throughout the room, interrupting her thoughts.
"Mrs. Mills, pleasure to finally see you. I'm sure you can see to it to find a partner of another house, to complete this portion with."
"Actually professor, it looks like I'm the odd one out."
Emma didn't know whether to gasp or gawk as the girl next to her spoke back to the feared potions professor. She knew she was of the Professors own house, but no one, not even the other teachers usually dared speak back to Professor Snape.
"I'll sit here and work by myself as a punishment for my tardiness, if you wish."
The potions master looked as perplexed as Emma had ever seen him. It was if a massive war of emotions were going on right behind his eyes. Emma couldn't tell what he looked more, angered or flabbergasted.
It wasn't until the words slithered cooly out of his mouth that she remembered to breathe.
"As luck would have it, I have a different assignment for you entirely," he replied cooly.
And with that the professor turned, the heavy black robes that he wore sweeping the ground behind him as he made his way over to the shelves behind his desk and then back to the table in which they sat, setting down a heavy book with a soft 'thunk'.
Dusting off the pages with a flick of his wrist, he opened the large book to a distinct page and Emma watched as the girl next to her paled.
"Think you can manage to create one of these." He said with a snarl.
The Slytherin prefect whose face was usually tanned, turned ashen white as she seemed to nod slowly out of a haze.
"I'm sure you can locate all of the necessary ingredients, however, If you find some to rare, I'm sure Madame Pomfrey maybe be able to supply you with parts."
Emma blinked, not sure if she was more confused by the out of character response from the unflappably bad mooded professor or the sudden 360 in confidence in the older girl next to her.
The sneer on the black clad man's face grew ever so slightly and his usually soulless eyes seemed to enlarge as he rounded away from them.
Emma glanced over as the sound of muffled whispers were silenced and everyone in the room looked away from the odd scene, pretending to be working instead. The professor had walked away, leaving the large book open and the raven haired girl who now seemed to resemble the seen white glow of a ghost had not shut it.
In the utmost corner of the tattered parchment in a messy handwritten scrawl read two words.
Letum Leporidae.