Chapter 3: Fight At The Lake
Marissa's first month of classes seemed to pass by in a blur. She had already known much of what was being taught already. She kept hoping to run in to Jacob at some point, but as he was a year ahead of Marissa, their paths never seemed to cross. Even still, Marissa was enjoying her life as a Ravenclaw. She and Abby had become fast friends and seemed to do everything together. Even still, Marissa constantly found herself thinking of Jacob. Sure they had passed each other in the corridors or she caught a glimpse of Jacob at dinner time, but he always had this sad look about him and Marissa never seemed to find the chance to try to talk with him. Even on weekends when no one had any classes to attend, Marissa found herself always busy doing things with Abby and whenever she brought up wanting to invite Jacob with them, Abby shut that idea down quickly, telling Marissa that she did not feel comfortable having someone of that upbringing too close to her. Marissa tried to understand this. She knew that Jacob's parents were Death Eaters, but he was not his parents.
It was a foggy Saturday morning when Marissa woke up two hours before everyone else in her dorm. The sun was just starting to rise when she left the common room and slowly made her way through the castle and to the owlery. The night before Marissa had written a quick letter to Jacob asking him to meet her down by the lake later that day. She'd would just have to tell Abby that she was going to skip the weekend trip to Hogsmeade. Abby would understand, hopefully.
A couple of hours later when everyone was starting to pour into the Great Hall for breakfast, Marissa was already sitting at the Ravenclaw table sipping coffee. A few other early risers sat together in a group talking among themselves and eating plates of eggs and bacon. Marissa was patiently awaiting the arrival of the post owls to deliver the morning mail. She was both hoping that Jacob would show up today and that Abby would understand her changing of plans.
Jacob walked into the Great Hall and looked around. A few of his fellow Slytherins gave him slight waves, but they quickly returned to their food and drink. Marissa caught his eyes and gave him a wide smile and wave. He surprised her by actually giving her a smile in return, albeit a tine one by comparison. Abby walked in shortly after and plopped down, rather ungracefully, in the seat next to Marissa. She stifled a loud yawn and shushed Marissa when she went to wish her a good morning. "Not until I've had coffee," Abby said grumpily.
Marissa elbowed her playfully in the side. She found it adorable how grumpy Abby was in the morning without coffee. Abby's mug filled itself with dark brown coffee and she took a sip letting out a satisfying sigh which made Marissa giggle.
The sound of a hundred owls flapping their wings filled the great hall as the morning post arrived. Marissa looked up eagerly trying to spot the owl that would be holding her note to Jacob. It only took her a minute to find the bird and before long it had landed in front of Jacob and he was quickly retrieving the note. A moment later Jacob had read the short note and caught Marissa's eyes. He gave a short curt nod and she smiled. That was that. Now all she had to do was to break the news to Abby that she would be skipping the Hogsmeade trip. "Abby," she said quietly, "about the Hogsmeade trip today..."
"I know!" Abby said cutting her off. "I'm so excited! It'll be great to just get away from the castle and forget about everything for a few hours. You've got to see Honeydukes. Biggest sweets shop that you've ever seen!"
"About that," Marissa said. "I think that I am going to have to skip this trip."
"What are you talking about? Why would you skip…." She trailed off and caught sight of where Marissa was looking. "You're kidding me right?" Abby said, he voice rising a couple of octaves. "You are seriously blowing me off to spend the day with Taylor? I can't believe this!"
"Come on Abby, please don't be like this," Marissa said glumly. "You know that I wanted to invite him with us, but you said no."
"Can you blame me Marissa? You know what kind of background he comes from! It's only been a year since You-Know-Who vanished."
"People are not their parents Abby, you know this." Marissa glanced over to Jacob and gave him a small wave.
"I know that," Abby said giving a quick glance to Jacob. "Still it makes me uneasy. I see the way that you keep looking at him whenever the two of you pass each other and it worries me. I just don't want to see you get hurt."
Marissa smiled and hugged her friend tightly. Abby really did care and it made Marissa feel great. She had been Marissa's first real friend at Hogwarts and Marissa treasured that beyond words. Still, this was something that Marissa needed to do. She had to air out her feelings with Jacob and see if he was feeling the same way or not.
"Okay," Abby said smiling a little. "I trust your judgment. If you say trust him then that is good enough for me. Go meet with him and if you have time after you can always join me in Hogsmeade then. If not, I will just catch you at dinner."
Marissa stood up and hugged her friend once again. "Thank you!" She said happily. "I promise to try to make it a quick meeting and we can get together right after." With that said, Marissa jogged out of the Great Hall, taking a moment to glance at the enchanted ceiling. It looked dark and ominous. Rain would be moving in quickly, but Marissa was not going to let that put a damper on her plans. A little rain wouldn't hurt her.
Two hours later when a majority of the castle had made their way to Hogsmeade, Marissa was still sitting in the Common Room with a group of first and second years that were not old enough to visit the village yet. The rain had not started yet, but many of the windows of the castle were vibrating from the rumbling of loud thunder. Marissa stood up and waved to the younger students who were all working on papers or practicing various spells and charms. Outside of the Common Room a few seventh year students were walking around and sharing jokes. Marissa could only guess that the novelty of Hogsmeade had worn off for them as the years passed by.
It was a quiet and ominous walk down the stairs and through the castle for Marissa. She was not used to seeing the hallways this empty. She couldn't help but think as the sound of her footsteps echoed off of the stone walls that all of this was a bit creepy. Marissa was a feeling deep in the pit of her stomach telling her that this may be a mistake. Still, she ignored that feeling and trudged onward through the castle and before long Marissa was pushing open the huge doors that led to the grounds. The dark clouds swirled overhead and the thunder rumbled. An occasional flash of lightening would illuminate the sky. The feeling in Marissa's stomach grew more intense, but still she ignored it and continued.
Rain stared to fall heavily as she crossed the grounds and Marissa saw the first sign that something bad was about to happen when she approached the lake. Jacob was standing there at the lake's edge, except that he was not alone. Five older students, Gryffindor, by the looks of their robes stood around surrounding him. She could see that at least two of them had wands drawn and were screaming, though she could not hear what they were saying through the strong wind. Marissa reached inside her robe and slipped her wand out before walking towards the group. She was not in the mood for a fight, but was prepared for one all the same.
It wasn't until she was almost to the congregation that she caught some of the words that were being said. "Spawn of a Death Eater!" One of them shouted. "You should just do the entire school a favor and leave. Just rid everyone of your disgusting presence."
The others laughed as Jacob's face went bright red. Jacob quickly reached for his wand, but was blasted off of his feet before he could draw it. Marissa stared in horror at what she was seeing. This was in no way a fair fight. A one on one duel was one thing, but Jacob was out numbered five to one. Well that was about to change. Marissa didn't know how much of a difference she would make against such unfair odds, but she was not about to just stand and watch Jacob get cursed. She charged forward and sent a stunning spell straight towards the group. The spell hit its mark. Straight in the center of the back of the guy who attacked Jacob. He fell face first to the ground with an audible groan and everyone turned to see where the spell had come from.
Marissa eyed the four people who now had their eyes trained on her. "Leave him alone!" She shouted at the top of her lungs and the others laughed.
"Look at that Taylor," one of the group said, "someone comes to your rescue. Now why would a simple Ravenclaw want to stick up for scum like this?"
"Scum you say?" Marissa said getting more and more angry the closer she got to them. "From here it looks like the only scum here are the five pieces of shit that are ganging up on a lone student! It would be different if it were a fair fight, but from where I stand you are just a bunch of damn bullies!"
A jet of blue light flew directly at Marissa's face coming from the wand of a female that looked to be a couple of years older than herself. She managed to dodge the curse at the last second and sent one of her own back at the girl who easily deflected it. By this time Jacob had managed to find his way back to his feet, but was just as quickly knocked back down, this time by a well placed punch to his jaw.
Marissa continued to fire spell after spell at the group, but she knew deep down that it was a futile effort, especially after one of the group had reversed the one stunning spell that she had managed to land. She was not a bad dueler by any means, but the odds were greatly against her. She hit one of the guys with a well placed disarming charm and his wand went flying out of his hand. Jacob managed to crawl away from the main group and his one of them with the full body bind curse. Marissa's heart swelled with joy at seeing Jacob start to fight back against those who wanted to hurt him. She dodged another curse, but her luck had to run out eventually. And run out it did. The next jet of light that flew her way hit Marissa just above her brow. White lights popped in front of her eyes followed by an intense burning sensation and something warm and sticky began to flow over her eyes and down her face. She wouldn't go down that easy though and fired another spell towards the group of Gryffindor's, but it was no use. With blood obscuring her vision she couldn't see to aim properly. Three jets of red light hit her squarely in the center of her chest and Marissa was lifted off of her feet where she hovered in the air for a solid few seconds before being thrown backwards several yards. Her head bounced off of a rock and once again white lights popped in front of her eyes eyes and she called out Jacob's name weakly before losing consciousness.