"Honey, you alright?" I nodded. I fell into her arms completely vulnerable. Right now, I hated my father with such a passion that I could flip out at the sound of his name. Fortunately, I had a cool mother, she understood that I didn't want to talk about him so she brought me upstairs and we sat at the dining room table.
"So…what do you want to do tomorrow? The army will be celebrating tonight and busy as hell tomorrow. I thought we could sneak away and go shopping or something." I laughed and wiped the remaining tears away from my eyes. "Ok." "You know you still have to prepare for your initiation. And your birthday is coming up. Did you get that dress yet?" I nodded.
"It's upstairs"
"Alright…we can just go for the hell of it. Maybe we can go look for some cute guys to hang with." I couldn't help but crack up.
"Mum, you're married. Plus I already have a boyfriend"
"But they don't have to know. Come on, girl, it'll be fun." She winked at me. "Gives you the chance to work out that power of yours"
"Yeah, I guess." She sighed and put her head down on the table.
"Did you watch it?" She looked up at me. "No. I left when he was heading over to Potter. I heard it though." "Yeah me too." We heard the heard of cheering Death Eaters come running up the stairs when we turned around and my father entered the room, soaked in blood, from head to toe, the most biggest and most evil grin on his face. The anger flared inside me again as my mother started to ask, "What the hell happened to you?!" He chuckled darkly. He shook his head as he crossed the room, took my mother in his arms and kissed her passionately. Completely ignoring me, he apparated her away somewhere. No, not somewhere. Their bedroom. And the Death Eaters knew it too. To them, it was party time. Like caged animals with cabin fever, they flipped out like they were let out of their cages. Maleah's father excitedly stated that he was going back to his house to tell his family the news. Snape just stood there with a smirk on his face as Wormtail squealed loudly. I sighed and headed upstairs to my room. Auntie Cissy called after me but I ignored her and continued up the stairs. I felt so empty. So alone, except for my aunt and mom. Unless he brain washes her. As I walked by their bedroom door, it sound liked he was doing more than brain washing her. The moans and screams punctured my thoughts and I couldn't sleep that night. The Death Eater's cheering and shouting and my mother's moaning kept me up. Envy coiled up beside my head and whispered in my ear.
"It's been hours and they can't even try to keep it down"
"Who? My parents?" I spoke into the darkness.
"Well, yeah them, and the others"
"Nope. They don't care who's trying to sleep right now. Harry Potter is dead now and to them, nothing can stop them. No one cares about me, Envy"
"Of course they do. Just not now." I rolled my eyes in the darkness.
"Still. It doesn't make me feel better"
"Life sucks. It isn't suppose to feel good…It's hell"
"Are you saying that from a snake's point of view"
"….yeah." She sighed. Minutes went by before the noise downstairs seized. But it didn't fade away. It stopped abruptly. Even my mother's cries. As if everyone disappeared all together. Envy and I laid together silently, waiting, until the loud ringing in my ears was replaced by the echoing sound of footsteps coming up the stairs down the hall. I looked to my side and aw Envy lifting her head. The footsteps were slow and were being followed by more. "It sounds like 3 people." Envy hissed. There was a knock on the door as the footsteps seized. "Come in." I called. The door opened and sure enough, Envy was right. There were 3 figures standing in my doorway. There was a snap and all the lights in my room flickered on. I winced at the brightness and blinked repeatedly. It was my father, mother and Auntie Cissy. "What?" I asked. Auntie gave me a somber look and mother crossed her arms and started to bite her nails. My father was the only one to step foreword. He sat down on my bed and sighed. I glared at him.
"What do you want?" I growled. His expression remained, he had a frown and his eyes were a bit softer. Not his usual fiery red but now a dull cranberry color. "Serpentine…" He said in a hushed voice. He glanced at Envy and the corner of his mouth went up a bit, giving a small smile, which fell back down into a frown again once he turned his attention back to me.
"Do you remember when Maleah got in trouble for doing drugs?" "Yeah, what, you're going to give me a life lesson now? Don't do drugs?" "No, but you can still learn from it. Maleah is in the hospital." He said finally. I stopped breathing. I stopped thinking. I opened my mouth and heard myself ask, "Is she alright? What happened"
"Her father and mother told her to stop but apparently she didn't and went a bit too far." Auntie spoke up. I looked back at father.
"Is she going to be alright?" My voice was now rising with my panic and my eyes started to burn. My breathing got shallow and there was a heavy pressure bearing down on me. "She's in a muggle hospital since St. Mungo's can't treat drug related problems. She's still in London though"
"I want to see her!" I cried, tears falling now. "Honey, we can go see her tomorrow." Mother said. "No! Now!" I scream at her. It was an order and she knew it. She could see the red burning in my eyes. The tone in my voice that reminded her so much like my father. And he knew it too. That's why he hit me. His ice cold palm made contact with my cheek and I let out a pain-stricken cry which made both my mother and Auntie jump. "Don't talk to her like that!" My father hissed. I cried more. Uncontrollably. He felt some regret and took me in his arms, petting my hair and kissing my head as I cried into his shoulder. The anger and frustration left over from that night fell away as we embraced. "I'm sorry!" I sobbed. "It's alright. Look, you need sleep. When you wake up, Your aunt and mother can take you to see Maleah. But for now, sleep." I nodded silently. And he laid me back and tucked me in. My mother and Aunt came foreword and they each gave me a kiss goodnight. "Goodnight, kiddo. I'll get you up tomorrow. We can spend the whole day in London if you want." Auntie said quietly. I nodded.
"Ok"
"Night, Sleep tight, don't let the Vampires bite." I giggled as my mom gave me a kiss on the forehead. They left the room and my father sighed.
"Serpentine, I'm sorry about earlier. I realized that I have been hard on you lately. You have been getting into trouble but what the hell, it's genetic, right?" I laughed "Yeah. I'm sorry too. It just seemed like you didn't care about me that much and you were too preoccupied with the Army and mum, that you didn't have time for me.
"You know, that's true, but you're also wrong. I do care about you. I haven't been with your mother and you for years and now I have to get my army in order and these days are going to be tedious but soon we can spend a lot of time together like a family. Right now, though, I need to deal with the army first. You can start spending more time with your mother now. Your birthday is in a few days…we can spend the whole day together then, alright?" I nodded. "Don't feel rejected. I don't hate you. And I'm not ignoring you." I lowered my gaze guilty, stared at my hands and picked the black nail polish off my finger nails.
"Where's Breanna?" "She's spending the night over her mum's house." I could see him nod out of the corner of my eye. There was a long pause before he spoke again in a soft voice.
"I'll never forget that day when I last saw you. I knew Potter was looking for me. You were about a year old. Running around and babbling. The other followers got a kick out of you. It was quite funny to watch them play with you." He frowned a bit. "Your mother was holding you when Potter showed up. I told her to run. I fought with Potter and watched as you two were being chased by Potter's little friends. And then you disappeared into the woods. After a while, the group of brats came back and announced the worst news to me"
"What?" I asked in a low voice.
"That your mother and you had jumped over the waterfall there. They held up your baby blanket and I almost broke down. Potter took advantage of my broken heart and stabbed me multiple times." I gasped and he laughed. "Well it's not like I'm dead now." He chuckled. I sighed as I noticed that he was in front of me in full form and in power, absolutely ok. He stood up. After starring at me for a few moments, he said sternly: "I'll be giving you the tools of the trade soon. Use them with extreme caution. You have much more power than the ones you already know you have. The new powers will be more difficult to handle and they're for more serious situations, not just playing with people's feelings…" "The Unforgivables?" I asked proudly. He nodded. "And more. Now get to sleep." I nodded and closed my eyes as he kissed my forehead and left the room without another sound. Soon, I will be able to use all of my powers and be like my father. As I thought about it, I couldn't help but feel a bit of envy towards him.