This isn't my longest chapter, but I'm quite happy with this one because you have a clearer image of the friendships that we haven't seen any moments of so far. I'm talking Lexie/Janice and Harry/Claire. You also see Janice's feelings towards being a werewolf in this, and I'm so excited to hear what you guys think.
Ch. 12 Patronuses and Parselmagic
POV JANICE DIGGORY:
There were dim, weird forms struggling out of the shadows, when they got clearer they appeared to be people, running from something. There was a terrible hoarse roar and a girl's scream.
I tried my best to keep up with the people, but when I accelerated, they did too. But I was the faster, I noticed. They came closer, and I could see the people more clearly. Their backs, at least.
A tall girl, with a bushy mane of impossible brown curls bouncing up and down her back as she ran. Another girl next to her, less tall, with straight, copper-coloured hair waved behind her. Next to her was another girl, with long blonde hair that seemed to be silver in the light of the moon.
I was advancing on them. I needed to reach them… I was much quicker.
I bumped into the girl with the bushy mane and pushed her to the ground. I recognized her as Claire, only now. Her blue eyes looked terrified, and I didn't understand why.
"Run!" she shouted shrilly, to the others.
I wanted to say all was okay, but instead of words a growl escaped my lips. Claire screamed and closed her eyes. Then I realized it. I was the monster. I had been chasing after them.
I wanted to stop, but my nails clawed into Claire's flesh and my teeth sunk into her neck, ripping it open, eating the bloody flesh… I howled.
The scenery changed, and I found myself in an old, rotten mansion. I'd never been there before, but it looked familiar somehow. It was almost completely dark if not for the silvery light of the full moon shining through the creaks.
I wanted to scream, run and hide from the moon, but I knew I couldn't.
Every hair that spurted through my skin felt like a needle, burning, as if it was intoxicated with some acid fluid. Sharp, killer nails moved its way out of my fingertips, and I screamed in agony.
My screams slowly turned into howls of pain, losing my consciousness and an unexplainable rage flared inside of me. Teeth as sharp as razor blades replaced my human teeth, and I howled with pain.
No! I didn't want to be a monster!
I felt something hit against my face, and I looked around to see who was to blame, while my wolf-mind was only focused on one thing: kill. The same thing hit against my face again and I clawed in the air, waking by a load of icy water on my head.
I woke screaming.
"Not so loud!" someone warned me.
When my eyes were adjusted enough to the light to open them, I looked at Lexie's face, white as marble with one single cut across her cheek, and the faded one on her eyebrow. I gasped when I saw the fresh cut there, and I felt guilty instantly.
"I'm so sorry!" I squealed, starting to sob. "I couldn't help it, I lost my mind! I'm a monster!"
I started sobbing halfway, when I felt two arms wrap around me. Lexie crawled into my bed, cradling my head and resting it on her chest, arms still safely around my waist.
"You're not a monster," she whispered softly. "You're a good person, to whom something bad has happened."
"You're a good person, too," I sniffed.
She laughed. "Not really, Janice."
"You're a great person," I whispered. "Just as great as Bella, or Claire, or Mione, or Ron, or Harry. I'm sorry you have to sleep here."
"I'm grateful I can sleep here," Lexie said. "Your roommates are really kind to me as well."
"Why wouldn't they be?" I asked.
"Don't forget, I'm a Slytherin," she said.
"They don't hate you," I said. "They don't really hate the Slytherins, either. They just think the whole anti-Muggleborn business is bad."
"They're right," Lexie said. "It is bad."
I could sense by the tone in which she spoke something was off. Then I realized. "That's why you were- er- hit, right?" I asked. "Something in that direction, at least. Did they hit you for being friends with Claire and Hermione?"
"Sort of," she answered. "The guy that hit me, Petyr Selwyn, he- he called me a blood traitor, in front of the whole common room. He called Hermione Mudblood, and I- I got so angry, I said some things that were true, but were very poorly timed. So he hit me."
"It was logical that you got angry," I said. "He shouldn't have called Hermione Mudblood. What did you say to him?"
"I didn't even say anything," she said. "I just hinted towards his secret. He's a queer, and I knew. I was angry, he was in my way so I threatened him with it. That was the last straw for him."
"I think he didn't mean to hit you," I said. "I think he was just scared, and upset. You could try and apologize to him. I'm sure you'll be able to make peace."
Lexie laughed, carelessly, and joyfully. "Oh, Janice, you are so deliciously naïve. You don't know how Slytherin politics work. But, who cares, I love you just the way you are. You're one of my best friends ever."
And even after my nightmares, I felt better, whispering an, "I love you too," before falling back to sleep.
POV BELLA MCLAGGEN:
I knew Hermione had meant well, but still I understood why Harry and Ron were pissed at her for running to McGonagall. Harry had been the owner of the best broom in the entire world for a few precious hours, and now, with Hermione's interference, he didn't know whether he would ever see it again.
I hadn't had time to ask Padfoot yet, but I would soon enough. They'd had a short truce on Boxing Day, just to not make Janice feel any worse than she already was, but after that they had started to scowl at each other in the common room, leading to ignoring each other completely.
Claire's spirits had somehow fallen a bit, too, though no one knew why exactly. All in all, I think everyone was glad when the castle become noisy again.
Classes started again. Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for our enjoyment, and we had an extraordinary good lesson.
Divination, however, had been less fun. We were doing palmistry. That old crazy woman had not missed the chance to tell Harry that his lifeline was really short.
Defence Against the Dark Arts class, however, was a cheer-up. Lupin had told Harry they could start with their Dementor-lessons as soon as possible. "Still looks ill, doesn't he?" said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. "What d'you reckon's the matter with him?"
There was a loud and impatient 'tuh' from behind us. It was Hermione, who was walking just behind us, with Claire and Lexie. "What are you tutting at us for?" said Ron irritably.
"Nothing," said Hermione in a lofty voice, heaving her bag over her shoulder (it looked extremely heavy.)
"Yes, you were," said Ron. "I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin and you-"
"Well, isn't it obvious?" said Hermione with a look of maddening superiority.
"If you don't want to tell us, then don't," snapped Ron.
"Fine," said Hermione haughtily, and she marched off.
"She doesn't know," said Ron. "She's just trying to get us to talk to her again."
"She does know," said Lexie.
"Enlighten us," Ron snarled.
"I'm not going to," Lexie laughed. "If you want to know, ask her. You must be really angry at her, to prevent Harry from dying in a tragic broom incident."
"Oh, just go and get yourself beaten again," Ron groaned.
Lexie huffed and made sure to bump into him with her shoulder when she past him. "You really shouldn't have," Janice said.
"You're just as bad as Hermione!" Ron spat.
"You don't know what she's going through, is she?" Claire said, raising an eyebrow.
"She's probably going to Malfoy now," Harry said angrily. "Malfoy and the rest of her snake friends."
"They're probably laughing about Harry having lost his Firebolt in their common room now," Ron added.
"She can't even go into her common room anymore!" said Janice shrilly.
"Shush!" I hissed.
"What d'you mean?" said Harry.
"She's been sleeping in the Hufflepuff common room!" Janice said. "Next time don't say anything like that if you don't know the whole story! And Hermione did this just because she cared about you!"
After this little rant, the dark-haired girl marched off, fuming. "Why has Lexie been sleeping in the Hufflepuff common room?" said Ron, looking slightly guilty.
"Lexie's a lot of things, but stupid's not one of them," said Claire. "She knows it's not safe there until she fixes things."
"If she only told us who it was that hit her…" I said, wanting to scheme a revenge-prank.
"I think she did that for exactly that reason," Claire said, running a hand through her curls. "I'm off to the bathroom."
She abruptly turned around and left. "Again?" Ron whispered. "She's gone at least seven times today."
"Probably girl stuff," I said, Harry and Ron exchanging looks.
At the dinner table I sneaked some food off the table, to give to Padfoot later this evening. I sneaked a few potatoes, three sausages and a pudding, hoping it would be enough.
I think he'd like something else than- I didn't even know what he was eating now. After dinner, and after having brushed off Ron and Harry, I slipped away, into the dark forest, trying to locate the place we'd met the last time.
"Padfoot," I whispered. "C'mere, I've got some food for you."
I heard a loud bark and laughed as the big, shaggy, black dog came running towards me. I sat down, petting him. Padfoot led the way to the hidden cave under the huge tree, where he transformed to his human form.
I opened my bag and gave him the food. "They might've gone a bit cold," I said. "But I hope they'll still taste nice."
"You're an angel!" he said, and started wolfing up the potatoes and sausages, and he almost buried his nose in the pudding.
He even ate like a dog. "Did Harry like my gift?" he asked, with his mouth full.
I looked down.
"He did," I said. "But Hermione, she -er- sort of got suspicious and McGonagall confiscated it to check it for jinxes."
I said this all very fast.
"Oh."
Padfoot looked a bit disappointed, by he seemed to understand. "Of course they'd think I'd hexed it."
"No one knows better than you wanting to kill Harry," I said. "No one knows you're innocent."
"Except for Pettigrew," he said bitterly.
"And me," I added, smiling at him.
He smiled back, looking a bit like the handsome man he had once been. "And you."
POV CLAIRE GIBBS:
I held my fingers under the tap and let the water wash them clean. I'd washed them over and over again and they still smelled awful. No one ever told me doing this smelled so much!
I undid my ponytail and let my curls bounce on my back. They were really impossible. Running a brush through them would only make it worse. Somehow, the more I tried to flatten my hair, the more it wanted to mess up.
The colour was not too great either. Dull brown, boring. Maybe I'd dye it, like Bella has. But not red, red would look awful on me. Maybe I should try black? I sighed. It wouldn't make me any prettier.
My Dad was right. I'm ugly and fat, but I'm working on the last part. My face had grown thinner, my features harsher, but it made no difference. I was still Fatty Gibbs.
I smelled my fingers. It was a mixture of soap and puke. I hoped you couldn't make out what the puke was if you hadn't known it was puke, and I finally left the bathroom.
It was late, almost nine in the evening, half an hour till curfew. I should get back to the common room, I had already missed supper. When I crossed the corridor, I saw Harry on his way back to the common room. "Hey, Claire!" he said. "What are you still doing here?"
"I'm on my way back, actually," I said. "And you?"
"I came back from Lupin," said Harry, looking a bit upset. "He's trying to teach me the Patronus, but I can't do it. It drives me mad, honestly."
"You're usually very good at defensive spells, I'm sure you'll get this one right in time," I assured him.
"But I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!" he ranted on. "I do the incantation right, the wand movement, I've got a happy memory, and still I've got only a wisp of silver smoke."
"A Patronus is an exceptionally hard spell to do, you know," I said. "My mother is a grown witch, passed her NEWTs and everything, and she never learned how to do it. Seventh years only learn the theory."
"Lupin told me," Harry said. "I'm still kind of bummed about it."
The sound of Lupin's name brought back that lurching in my stomach I had whenever I saw him. I know it was him that bit Janice. And he still did like nothing had happened.
"Maybe I can help you, Harry," I proposed. "I don't think I'll be able to make you produce a real Patronus, but maybe we could try the shield form."
"You're the best!" he smiled.
"What memory did you use, exactly?" I asked. "The last time you tried this."
"When Hagrid told me I was a wizard," Harry replied. "Before that I had my first time on a broomstick. I didn't know anything else, to be honest. My time with the Dursleys wasn't exactly great."
"I understand," I said. "Maybe- do you remember anything of your parents?"
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe something- but I don't know whether it's even a real memory, now I come to think of it."
"That doesn't matter," I said. "Maybe it's even better than the truth."
"Why would it be better than the truth?" Harry asked.
I opened my mouth, but someone filled in my words, "Because the truth is either terrible, or boring."
I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw Lexie standing next to me. I heard footsteps behind me and I tensed.
"Is that why you run from truth, Lexie Jones?"
Harry, Lexie and I turned around. Standing there in the hall was a boy I didn't know. He had a handsome face, doe-eyed and rosy-cheeked. On his head were dark locks, reaching for his shoulder. He didn't have the greatest figure, but was tall and very slender. He wore his green-silver tie with pride.
"You know a great deal about running from the truth, don't you, Petyr?" Lexie said, only the ghost of a scowl creeping over her face.
She had become quite skilled at hiding her emotions, but I'd known her for ten years. There were some thing she couldn't hide from me. "Petyr?" Harry said. "As in, Petyr Selwyn? The bastard you were going to teach a lesson?"
"I find your Gryffindor bluntness very invaluable," Lexie, said glaring at Harry, who glared back.
"Teach me a lesson?" Petyr Selwyn laughed, showing a row of white teeth. "That didn't work out well, did it? I thought I was the one that taught you a lesson, but you still seek the company of filthy halfbloods."
"They're better people than you'll ever be," Lexie snarled. "Merlin knows, most likely better than I'll ever be. But at least I'm not a rotten, cheating scumbag."
Something remarkably like fear flickered over the older boy's face. Was this the guy she'd caught cheating upon his girlfriend with another guy? Harry looked puzzled, but I thought better of it than to explain to him.
"I couldn't help that," Selwyn said. "I can't help it- I'm just- I've always been-"
"You think I gave a rat's ass about your sexual preference?" Lexie laughed, her voice sounding cruel even to me.
"What else would it be about?" he said, his cheeks flushed and more rosy than before.
"I don't like guys who cheat on their girlfriends," Lexie said, counting her fingers. "I don't like stinking purebreds who think they're better than people born to Muggles, I don't like people who think they just can command me and get away with it, and I don't like people who hit me. You happen to have done just that."
"Well, then what do you want?" he shouted.
I saw him itching for his wand. This was not going to end well.
"I want you to leave me alone, never cheat on your girl- excuse me, boyfriends ever again, and I never want to hear the words Mudblood, blood traitor or half-blood ever escape you busy lips again. Am I clear?"
"You think you can just boss everyone around, do you?"
POV LEXIE JONES:
Don't get angry.
Don't dive at his throat.
No matter how angry you feel, you mustn't show it.
I smiled, surprising Petyr as well as Claire and Harry. "It's one of my many hobbies," I said.
"You can't boss me around," he snarled. "And other people will know you've got no power. All you do is scare people with bragging about your duelling abilities. I'd like to see them." He drew his wand, bellowing, "Expelliarmus!"
I'd seen that one coming and blocked it easily. We both had our wands out now. "Stop this madness," Claire said. "If a teacher shows up you'll both be in trouble. You could hurt each other."
"There's nothing I'd rather do, half-blood," Petyr spat. "Well, don't be shy, Jones. Show me some of your spells. Weren't you talking about powerful dark curses?"
It was so damn tempting to show him. I needed to show him.
"Don't do it," Claire said. "He's not worth it, this is just as with Michael."
"He's not Michael," I said. "He's no Muggle. He should be able to show resistance. He's not helpless."
"If a teacher sees you using Dark magic inside of school you'll surely be expelled!" Claire warned me.
Selwyn seemed way to content with himself for my liking. "Listen to your half-blood friend, Jones," he laughed. "You're lucky the girl is smarter than she is skinny."
The following happened in milliseconds. My eyes shot to Claire's face, which became as pale as a dead man's. I'd never wished more to be a snake than now, strike in a matter of seconds of fill Selwyn's body with a nice, large doses of lethal venom.
"Torqeo!" I hissed, sending a flash of dark shadows towards him, hitting him in the chest and, curling around his body, flinging him backwards, against the wall.
I heard a crack and I realized he must have broken something. He appeared unconscious, too. For a moment I feared panic would take hold of me, but I could control myself enough to say calmly, "Let's get out of here."
Claire stood frozen on the spot for a moment, but Harry and I each grabbed an arm and dragged her along the corridors into an empty classroom. It was already dark outside, and if the teachers found us like this, on a somewhat close distance to Selwyn, we would surely be dead.
Then again, I could always say I saw Sirius Black. That would cause the whole school a lot of trouble, but it would save me some.
"Was that Dark Magic?" Harry said, and I didn't like this demanding tone of his.
"Have you killed him?" Claire said, still pale.
"What is this?" I said indignantly. "Where's the 'How awesome was that, Lexie! Well done!' or at least 'Thanks for standing up for us, Lexie.' eh?"
"Don't you know what that was?" Claire asked. "Don't you know what you did?"
"She did some weirdo Dark curse, that's what I saw," said Harry.
"Some weirdo Dark curse, yes!" I said shrilly. "Which he completely deserved, by the way, for calling you- that."
"Harry, of course you haven't noticed! You could just hear English, right?" Claire hissed.
I gasped. How come I hadn't even realized? Stupid me, thinking I could control it!
"I don't understand a word of what you're saying," said Harry.
"She didn't do an ordinary Dark curse, Harry" Claire explained. "That was what Lexie calls Parselmagic."
I did it.
1. Poor Janice, I really do feel sorry for her. But I think the hardship's she's going through only exaggerates how sweet and good and pure she actually is. I think this shows a bit of a softer side to Lexie as well, and let's be honest, that bitch needs a soft side.
2. Bella's POV was rather short, but the Ronmione-part was just a bless for the fandom, straight from the books and awesomely canon. Her moments with Sirius will also be short, but there will be a lot more so I will develop their relationship gradually.
3. Claire is completely obsesses with self-harm now, and I think it is important because a lot of teenage girls actually do this. Barely eat and puke out what they've eaten. You can relate to Claire because she is insecure, and I think everyone is.
4. Lexie's POV was a short one, but she's had longer ones to make up for this. I think Petyr Selwyn is a complex person, and he resembles the outer image of what most people think is a Slytherin, but with a lot more going on on the inside. Though I think Lexie and Blaise are the most realistic Slytherins in this story.
See ya next chappies.
