Author's Note: This chapter is considerably longer than the others. It is also quite sappy to the end. I hope you don't mind. Thanx to Maxine for her review.
The Photo
"Stop starring out of the window, Sara. Yeh, I know it has been a shock for you, but it's not like you are condemned to death or anything."
Sara laughed dryly. "You don't know my family, Scary. Death is still the more pleasant option for me."
"I still think there was something wrong with the sorting hat. C'mon let's go and ask somebody about it."
Sara shook her head apathetically.
"Don't just sit there. I'm getting scared. It is not that bad. All right. You are in a different house than you expected. So what? It is still exciting."
Sara didn't answer. She just stared out in the night.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Scary wasn't used to counselling. In the orphanage she grew up everybody tried to hide his or her feelings from everybody. Just don't show any weaknesses and if you do don't talk about it. She was just too impatient for this. Suddenly Sara spoke still not leaving her eyes from the window.
"You haven't seen my sister. She practically disowned me with her looks. I can't leave the room. I never want to leave it again. I don't want to see her." She sobbed quietly.
Scarlet sighed. Then she walked up to Sara and put her arms around her shoulders. "Look, if anybody dares saying one wrong word to you they will wish the were never born." They both were silent until Sara nodded and said sniffing: "Thanks."
In this moment the door opened. The girls looked up and quickly broke the embrace. Sara swept her tears away. Then she smirked.
"Well, well, well, if this isn't our little friend from the train. Rose Bennett if I am not very much mistaken."
"I think that was her name, Sara. What could she possibly want in our dormitory?"
From one moment to the next all Rose euphoria was gone. Why didn't she think about it earlier, that she had to share a room with Scarlet and Sara? The eyes widened in shock she stood in the doorframe. Sara got up and walked menacingly towards her.
"Scarlet asked you a question, dear don't you want to answer it?"
Her eyes were red and swollen. Had she been crying? Surely not.
"I sleep here." Rose replied anxious.
"And you think that gives you the right to just walk in without knocking? No wait. I am sorry, you do have the right. After all you are Professor Lupin's pet."
"Sorry." Rose muttered and then turned to make her way quickly to the bed but Scarlet got up now as well and stood in her way.
"Sorry, what?"
"Sorry, Sara and Scarlet." She mocked her. Scarlet smile vanished.
"I think you know by now that her name is Zabini and mine is Black. You are not given the permission by any of us to use our first names, or did that mother of yours have no time to teach you some manners?"
Rose didn't know what had been going on before she had entered the room but it seemed she chose the wrong moment to come in. the only thing she wanted was to go to bed and sleep in peace. But she never ever would degrade herself. Now she knew what the hat had meant. She stared at Scarlet defiantly. She knew so many hurting things to say to her. So many things that would make the impact on her as it had on Rose. But she was in the minority and the last thing she wanted was to be beaten up. So she just turned around and went for the door.
"Where do you want to go?" Scarlet asked not and Rose spotted a slight bit of concern in her voice.
"To Professor Lupin." Rose replied coolly, "I am going to ask for a single dormitory for me so I am not bothering you anymore."
"You don't dare telling on us." Scarlet hissed. In her voice a tint of uncertainty.
"Oh I would never dream of doing that." Rose turned around again with lots of regained self-assuredness. "But if he should ask me why I want my own room I would not lie to him. It's unethical."
She could see the rage in the girl's faces.
Finally Sara snarled: "Fine, you can go to your bed now. I hope you have pleasant dreams." Then both stepped aside to let Rose through to her bed. But just as she passed Scarlet she heard her whispering, "You are going to pay for this, Bennett!"
Rose lay down and wept herself to sleep.
The next day Scarlet got up after weird dreams about maniac children eating heads. She yawned and then realised were she was.
"Sara, Sara" she screamed excited. "Wake up. Think of that! We are actually going to Hogwarts!!"
"We went to Hogwarts yesterday." Sara muttered grumpily in her cushion.
Scarlet pretended she hadn't heard her.
"Do you know what we are going to need today? I have my scrolls, my quill… Oh I have to wear my uniform. Can you believe I was nearly going to go to my lessons in my Pyjamas?"
Sara sighed and slipped out of her bed.
"No I cannot believe that!" She snapped at her sarcastically.
"You have to do something against that temper of yours, Sara-dear." Scarlet shook her head dispraisingly. "Come now. We are late for breakfast already."
"Wait. Where is that Rose?" Scarlet turned around to find Rose' bed empty and her duvet tidily folded up.
She shrugged. "Probably already in the hall." She looked at her pleated pyjamas that were lying on her trunk. An idea was coming in her mind. She smirked.
"What about, Sara, we have a look in her trunk. She might have forgotten her school things and that would just be too bad. What do you think? Shall we have a look for her?"
Sara nodded smiling mischievously.
The girls went to Rose trunk and opened it carefully. As expected everything was put tidily on perfect piles. Scarlet sneered as she pulled out of a corner a little black book. A diary? She opened it and found it was a photo album. Scarlet flicked through the pages and suddenly stopped dead. She stared at a photo of a young woman. She was not extraordinary beautiful with her pale whitish skin in her straight brown hair. It was her eyes that burned into the ones of the viewer. Those big brown eyes with long lashes. In them so much happiness as if the world was not a big battlefield. The eyes of somebody who believed there was something like altruism.
Scarlet knew this woman and not just that. She knew this picture. Hastily she grabbed her purse out of her pocket and got a knitted photo out. She straightened it and held it next to the one of the woman. They were identical.
Scarlet ripped the picture out of the book and close in shock. Sara looked up from a private letter to Rose she was reading. "What's that you've got there?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing interesting." Scarlet replied. "Just some old photos. I only just realised that we are getting far to late on our first day. Let's go." With that she put the ripped out photo in her bag, tucked the other things back into the trunk quickly and left for the door. "Are you coming now or what?"
Sara was not the least bit convinced there was nothing in that photo album but she followed Scarlet. She would have to investigate here…
The breakfast was the most wonderful one Scarlet had ever had in her life. In the orphanage they just served tea and buttered bread. She had never imagined that a breakfast could be a real meal. She enjoyed every morsel.
Laurence regarded her strangely cool. Even cooler than he normally did.
"What's up?" she asked with full mouth.
"It's just… Do you know what they say about you?"
"What do they say?"
"That you are Sirius Black's daughter. I that true?"
Scarlet laughed. Here we go again. "No, stupid! My father is… Well you promise you don't talk about it to anyone?" She smiled mysteriously.
Laurence nodded and Sara and Andrew moved over. They all looked at Scarlet curiously.
"Well" she whispered, "My father is a top agent for the ministry of magic. That's why I was brought up in the orphanage."
"Really", Sara gasped, "Where is he now?"
"Mh, I don't know if I should tell you." Scarlet looked from one to the next. Oh she loved it when every little bit of attention fell on her, when the people hung at her lips, when tension was thickening the air. Yes, she was a master in achieving this state of listening. Be it the truth or lies. Everything could be expanded. Everything could make an impact was it told in the right way and in right doses. Don't tell too much or they won't believe you, don't tell to few or they won't be interested.
"But it won't hurt if I tell you vaguely." And again the tension rose. "He is in Romania. Transylvania to be exact."
"With the vampires?" Sara asked excited.
"He is but… they don't know it. He is spying on them."
"What is he spying on?"
"Sorry. I can't tell you. You must understand. It's all top secret." she put a finger on her mouth.
"When will you see him again?"
"It's never sure. I hope for Christmas. The last time was a month ago. He was here for two weeks and showed me some spying methods."
"He did what? That's just so cool. You must teach me spy stuff too."
"I will. Someday. But now we have lessons. What is next?"
"Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs then Potions with the Slytherins and then Flying again with the Slytherins." Laurence seemed unaffected by Scarlet's story though he didn't look as if he didn't believe her. It was very hard to read his thoughts. Maybe impossible.
Transfiguration was the most interesting thing Rose had ever done. She got along with the Hufflepuffs, in the sense of not being bullied. Her experiences were too hurting and too fresh to try and start a friendship with one of them. She didn't say much but the looks they gave her were honest and nice.
The subject itself was very fascinating. The little presentation of animagus skills McGonnagal had given them had been just so cool. Rose wished she could do something like that. Then she wouldn't have to flee from Scary's gang after the classes. She would just transform and do what she wanted to do. Maybe she would live with other animals or if she was a bird she could fly home everyday to visit her Mum.
Potions had been the exact opposite to Transfiguration. The teacher Professor Snape had been silencing rather than persuading to pipe up. Additionally he seemed to dislike Gryffindors very much. If Rose wouldn't think it was absurd or a teacher she would even think he loathed them.
Snape seemed to have taken special interest in Rose. That means he asked her every second question and as he saw she new most of the contents he asked her more and more difficult questions searching for gaps in her knowledge. Had he found one he used it to humiliate her in front of everybody much to Scarlet's pleasure.
She was so happy that the lesson finished and didn't loose any time while packing her things in case he found another reason to torment her. She nearly run out of the class and turned to the school grounds for their flying lesson.
That should become very interesting, she thought bitter, me on a broom, as if the humiliation wasn't already big enough.
When she opened the door she realised it was raining. If you could call it like this. It was more than just rain. Oceans were pouring from the sky.
Now the others had arrived too. Scary could hear moaning. Lots of people had looked forward to their first Flight lesson and it was very unlikely that there would be a lesson in this weather.
There wasn't. Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, had led them to the greenhouses where the replacement lesson was taught. It must have been very hard to educate a bunch of bad-tempered first years, whose last thing they wanted was to dig out roots. Well most of them. Rose loved Herbology. She wouldn't have thought it could get any better than Transfiguration but she was wrong. Everything Professor Sprout said. And was it just a small remark about different types of earth was fascinating Rose like nothing else. She didn't know what it was that made different sizes of magic potential in soil or the red and black of the German Blackthorn or the pulling techniques of passion root so interesting. She needed to talk to Professor Sprout. Rose wanted to take more jobs in the greenhouse. That had two advantages. First she could spend more time with the plants and second more importantly she wouldn't have to be around Scary and the others so much.
"I can't believe that we miss our very first flying lesson because of a stupid rain." Sara sat in a corner of the greenhouse and looked more than miserable. "Quidditsch is played in every weather. Scarlet, what are you staring at?"
Scarlet turned around. "Look at Rose. What's she doing with Professor Sprout?"
Sara looked in the direction Scarlet pointed. "Apparently sliming. What did you expect her to do?"
"Maybe she is telling on us. She was staring in my direction the whole time before this."
"Oh Scare, you get paranoid. She is probably just asking to give the class more homework or something."
"I hate her. She needs to be taught a real lesson and not in Herbology. What do you think are we going to finish her off?"
"I don't know Scary. Don't you think it is getting a bit to boring? Why can't we just leave her?"
"You're afraid or what?"
"No. It's just that I don't understand why you hate her so much. Yeh, she is annoying and stuff but you did turn on her the moment you first saw her. What is going on?"
"I just want he to have respect for us. I thought you were actually Slytherin. You must understand what I mean. You must know how important respect is."
It was lucky that Scarlet was wearing her sunglasses because in her eyes there was much more than just hate. Also fear…
"Alright, alright. What are we going to do? And don't you dare using Slytherin against me again. I don't appreciate it when people stir in my wounds. Those who do it may die a horrible death."
Scarlet smiled. She always got what she wanted.
"I go and ask the boys to come. We are going to get her after this lesson."
Rose was happy. She was going to work here in the greenhouse now everyday in the afternoon. Sprout was positively fond of her. The first person in Hogwarts. When the lesson was over she waited a moment till the other students were gone so she wouldn't get any remarks from Scary's crew, then she left the greenhouse lightly. The rain still wasn't any better. if anything then it just had gotten stronger.
Rose put her books under her coat and her hands over her head and ran… directly into the trap.
"Hey, Rosy-Mouse", Scarlet sneered and laughed as Rose realised in shock. "We thought we wait for you so you don't have to walk back to Hogwarts all-alone."
"Just leave me!" Rose turned to run away.
"Oi, Bennett. Do you miss something?"
"Where did you gat that?" Rose face went red with fury as she saw Scarlet holding up the picture of her mother. Her favourite picture. The one where she looked so beautiful.
Scarlet smirked and without a moment of consideration ripped the photo in half.
Rose let out a scream of rage and jumped on Scarlet. Having the advantage of surprise she managed to push her to the muddy floor and rip her sunglasses of. Her fire filled blue eyes looking in Scarlet's cruel green ones. A moment. Then Scarlet hit back. Turning Rose on the ground. They went on the rain straightening their hair the mud sticking on their robes and faces.
Until both fall down to the ground next to each other gasping. Then when they rose it happened.
"Creepy!" was the only thing Sara could say and the boys fell entirely silent. There they stood those girls archenemies and it was impossible to tell was who.
"Identical." Andrew gasped.
Slowly the girls turned to see each other. Full of fear of what they might find.
It was like looking in a mirror. Like a nightmare and like a dream come true. They always had wanted this so much and always had feared it. And in this short moment that seemed like the world forgot to turn and time forgot to go on they saw that they knew it all along. Not since today and not since Hogwarts but always.
Still hanging on to the image of herself that was not, Scarlet slowly lifted a hand. Then she slapped her. Rose was thrown back to the ground. A sharp stinging pain in her face and in her heart.
Scarlet just ran.
A/N: And? Please, please review.