A/N: Lucas and Luce's conversation will be italic in this chapter. Oh, and later chapters, too, since English will become the main language.

Emerald

Chapter 3

Strange, the man felt as he approached the battered brick wall, quickly closing the distance between his destination and his reluctant footsteps. The alley looked just like any abandoned street, dark and dirty in sunlight, yet something was screaming the word 'abnormal' to his face, to his every sense, overwhelmed him with uneasiness and nervousness. The man took another step forward despite the warning of his Auror's instinct that was flaring and hurling like the Knight Bus in heat. His pride would never let him back down and became his only source of bravery.

The Auror pressed himself against the wall, gloved hands feeling the hard material, eyes squinting, ears straining, fake hope swelling in his drumming heart that urged him to go back to the Ministry and give whoever assigned this mission to him a good yell. He found himself appalled at the mental image while feeling increasingly self-conscious, no thanks to his Disillusionment Charm. A foreign smell hit his nose; it was so enticing that the man took a deep refreshing breath, only to stutter and trip over in a pitiful heap, as an enormous snake appeared right in front of him. Its tongue flicked at him menacingly. Terror filled his insides the moment he recognized what had just happened.

It was magic! The energy fluid normally invisible to human eyes now thickened visibly and burst into uncountable number of coils that blindfolded him, drowned his hearing, impaled and squeezed the air from his lungs, effectively choked him like a rat. He clutched his throat in a silent scream; his mouth gaped hollow, only the occasional twitch of his facial muscles showed his pain. The snake watched him with apathy. His inner organs slowly crumbled under the unnatural force; the horror-stricken irises grew larger as the Auror hit the ground with a clean 'thud'.

His last thought, 'how the hell did Harry Potter ever end up here?' never had answers.

The alley fell empty the moment the Auror dropped dead on the ground. The air seemed to liquefy, becoming so thick and pseudo-poisonous that one might find difficult to breathe in. Dust froze in thin air, thrashes levitated themselves off the ground, dustbins shook with cackling sound. In a sudden everything stopped, as a raven head could be seen emerging from behind a wall. The figure couldn't be older than ten, and was currently experiencing a panic attack.

A gigantic snake – a Kind Cobra – was curling around the pale nude body, hissing to the child in hope of calming him, to no avail. Her human wouldn't listen to what she said – she noted with a sigh – so she started to squeeze him tight, until he snapped out of the panicked state.

'Luce! What are you doing! I can't breathe!' cried Lucas, flailing his limbs recklessly to escape the snake's iron grip. Eventually, he stopped, realizing what his friend has been trying to do. The struggling ceased and Luce stared at him, her slit yellow eyes dilating.

'I'm… sorry' he stuttered to find an appropriate apology 'It's just that… I've never killed one of my kind before…' Lucas fidgeted, relief showing clearly in his angelic face when the snake's attitude softened.

'I understand. You've never killed a cat, either. But soon, you'll have to get used to it'

'What, killing off my own kind?' Lucas sputtered 'It's not like hunting rats! You should know it yourself!'

'I'd had first hand experiences, Lucas. I'd eaten nothing but fellow lesser snakes before I came here'

'How?... Right, you're a Kind Cobra' sneered Lucas. He still found the idea of killing human somewhat sick. However, looking at his friend, he knew he had no choice. He relented unwillingly: 'Fine. But I don't want to talk about this'

Luce gave him a predatory smile that consisted of her fangs and a quirk in her snake eyes, made him back off slightly: 'You'll come to understand, youngling. You may be a human, but as a feline, you're a killer. No doubt, you'll become one amongst your kind. It has run in your blood ever since you entered this alley. And remember Voldemort'

The snake left after that. Lucas sat alone, idly wondered about what she just said. He didn't understand. He might be a youngling amongst the felines but he was no pushover. He could kill and had already done so, whether to satisfy his hunger or to protect himself. He put up good fights against bullies and intruders, however, has he killed anyone of them? He didn't know.

Or was it that he never killed because he had no reason to. Should his life or Luce's be threatened, Lucas doubted he would have sat and done nothing. The notion of revenge tasted foreign on his tongue as he spoke.

Or was it because he had witnessed the human's goggling eyes, heaving breath as it tried to clutch its life from Death. Lucas wondered if his snake friend could be able to feel such things. A snake felt no pity – he knew from years watching her hunts.

Voldemort killed his parents. Would he kill Voldemort? And everything that stood between?

That human was going to kill Luce – its wand tip flashed deep red in a sudden and if it hadn't been for Lucas, whose eyes perceived the vibrant dot…

The adrenaline streamed inside his veins as Lucas recalled the short encounter. Was this what he had felt, killing the human? Something had crawled inside him, demanding chaos; his magic had acted up violently. The human died of suffocation.

Suddenly he felt very cold. He transformed and curled up against a cardboard box, careful not to soil his velvety black fur. Ignoring the rumbling protest of his stomach, Lucas closed his eyes…

… Only to snap them open as a crashing sound hurled towards him.

Lucas dashed off from his nest. Luce was in trouble.

His feet moved on their own accord, drawing a circle around the intimidating reptile. His fingers clenched tightly around his wand ; his lips parted slightly, ready to fire off nasty curses should the enemy strike. His skin was ghastly pale ; sweat unwillingly found its way down his temples.

The Cobra eerily reminded him of his dead Master's pet.

The Cobra recoiled, much to Snape's chagrin. It could only mean danger.

Then suddenly it stroke. At the same moment, Snape's wand glowed sickly green.

The heavy body of the snake crumpled and collapsed, dead. Snape's breath came out in hasty smoke. His trance was cut out, however, when a shadow leapt towards him so fast the Potions Master only saw a blur to even retaliate.

Snape's bottomless eyes widened marginally as the shadow seemed to slow down, revealed its form of a cat who transformed into a naked child in mid-leap and landed right onto his face.

'Those eyes…' Snape thought numbly as the small figure pummeled him to the ground and started beating him with little fists. Raising both his arms to block the blows, he couldn't help but smiled in bitterness.

'Never thought the brat could have ended up here, if not for the letter. Albus, you had better brace yourself, for we have done the unforgivable' the smile turned grim in an instant then vanished.

Snape easily caught the child's both arms in an iron grip. Staring at the emerald eyes that stormed violently with emotions, he pointed his wand at him.

'Stupefy'

Lucas regretted the moment he opened his eyes.

His mind screamed White! As he hastily snapped them shut. Where was he? Why was he laying on something… so soft? Where were all the bricks and dustbins and cardboards? What was Luce doing?

His heart beat a thousand times faster when Luce was mentioned.

He remembered a sallow-faced human. He remembered the green light that hurled towards Luce like a rate sneaking back to its nest. He remembered the fallen figure. His heart clenched as realization dawned.

His mentor and only friend, gone, just like his imaginary parents in his dreams.

It was the sallow-faced man who had killed Luce.

Rage engulfed Lucas in storming flame. He opened his eyes again despite the blinding whiteness, responded to his blood boiling inside his veins, demanding revenge.

The adrenaline died out, however, when Lucas found that he couldn't get off whatever he was laying on. He tried to transform, to no avail.

A chuckle caught his attention.

'You won't be able to escape from those charms, Harry'

Lucas blinked.

In front of him stood a distortion of every notion of colors Luce had ever told him about. An old, very old human, wore a vibrant blue clothes-thing that had dozens of golden dots dancing merrily around. Lucas hissed in alarm: 'Who are you?'

The old human's eyes lost their cheery twinkle at Lucas' voice. His brows then rose in that could only be apprehension: 'I see, my dear boy, you have acquired a very rare gift. Rare, but dangerous nonetheless'

Lucas' patience was running out rapidly. He woke up in who-knows-where, he couldn't get out of whatever was holding and as a bonus, he couldn't understand a thing this human seemed to say to him.

Lucas' attention snapped to the back of the room, where a creaking sound of an open door could be heard. From there came in a human whose smell made the child wanted to run up to trees and another one with herbal odor. His eyes turned bloodshot.

It was the human who had killed Luce.

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