I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling as well as Warner brothers (For the movie rights).
Daughter of Darkness
Chapter Twenty-One
"Oh god, I forgot how much I hate waking up early," Izzy grumbled as she begrudgingly got out of bed for the first breakfast of the new school year. When she looked in the mirror of the bathroom after rubbing her eyes free of morning gunk, she startled herself.
Her eyes had gone heterochromatic, one brown and one blue, while her hair stuck up every which way and colored a deep shade of purple. Hermione laughed loudly, crying due to how hard she was laughing. Izzy pouted and turned to her best friend and waited for the bushy haired girl to get it out of her system.
"You lo-look like a troll d-doll!" Hermione choked out between fits of laughter.
"Well just for that, I think I'll charm all your books to be blank," Izzy said. Hermione stopped laughing and gasped, a hand to her chest before she glared at the completely serious expression on Izzy's face.
"You wouldn't dare," Hermione said lowly. Izzy said nothing as she focused on her hair, coloring it a deep blue as she brushed it out. She decided she would keep the duel eye color as she stepped out of the bathroom.
"Would I be so cruel, Hermione?" Izzy asked with a smirk. The girl in question snorted but otherwise said nothing as she threw on her school robes after giving up trying to control her hair.
"Come on, we need to get down to breakfast before Ron eats everything," Hermione said. Izzy let out a barking laugh as she fed Umbra a rat while the snake laid on her pillow (It was a shedding day for Umbra and Izzy knew the snake would want to do it in peace) before following her best friend down the stairs and to the great hall where they met up with Harry and Ron.
"Hello boys," Izzy greeted as they found Ron and Harry waiting for them outside the doors to the great hall.
"Hey," Harry and Ron said at the same time.
"So, ready for your first classes," Izzy asked, her hair turning orange in excitement at the thought of beginning of a new school year.
The four stepped into the great hall for breakfast, ready to eat and head to class, when several voices echoed, causing snickers to ripple across the Slytherin table.
"Hey Potter!" Izzy heard a Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, shriek across the great hall. Izzy rolled her eyes, flashing briefly purple and gray in her annoyance. Not even an hour into the new term, the Slytherin's were already at it. "Potter! The dementors are coming, Woooooo," she taunted. Izzy stopped and looked at her.
"Alright Pansy, if you think they're something to joke about you pug faced bitch, why don't you go up to one and introduce yourself," Izzy said sweetly before her smile dropped and she bared her teeth. "Maybe, if we're all lucky, it'll suck out your soul and we'll be spared the annoyance of hearing your screeching day in and day out!" Izzy snarled, hair and eyes flashing red.
"You little mudblood whore!" Pansy shouted, drawing her wand in anger.
"What is going on over here!" a voice called out before Izzy could draw her own wand. Izzy flicked her red eyes to see Minerva and Snape both coming down between the tables.
"Just a…minor disagreement, professor," Izzy said, glaring at Pansy. The girl growled and spun around, going back to her own table. Minerva and Snape stayed for a moment, keeping themselves between the Gryffindors and Slytherins before going back to the table. As Izzy sat down beside Hermione, Minerva came back and handed them their schedules.
"Let me see," Izzy muttered as she looked over hers and Hermione's schedules. "Oh nice, we arithmancy and ancient runes together!"
"What?" Ron asked as he looked over Hermione's shoulder. "They must've messed up her schedule then because we have divination at the same time. Nine o' clock. And look, she's even down for muggle studies during ancient runes later. I know you're wicked smart, Hermione, but I don't think even you're that good," Ron said. Izzy saw Hermione scowl before shoving her schedule into her back.
"I've already worked it out with Professor McGonagall," Hermione said stiffly.
"Come on, even you can't be in three classes at once!" Ron pointed out.
"Don't be silly, Ronald! How can anyone be in three classes at once? And what's it matter to you anyway if my schedules a bit full?" She asked
"All righ'" Izzy heard over her shoulder. She turned and grinned over her shoulder at the half giant behind her.
"Hagrid!" the four friends cheered. "Congratulations on becoming a teacher. You'll be brilliant!" Hermione offered.
"Why thank ya Hermione!" Hagrid said. "Can't wait to be seeing at least three of ya in class," he said with a look at Izzy who at least had the decency to look sheepish.
"Sorry Hagrid. I've never been an animal person," She said in her defense.
"It's no trouble. I understand! Just promise me you'll do well in yer other classes. Professor McGonagall told me yeh ain't takin it easy this year," He said as his eyes flickered between Izzy and Hermione.
"I promise, Hagrid. I know I can do it," Izzy said. Hermione nodded beside her and offered a toothless smile.
"Good on ye! Now, I best be getting on up to the staff table, wouldn' wanna miss a hearty breakfas' now would I?" He asked, chuckling to himself as he strode up to the table.
"So, what're all your first classes?" Izzy asked as breakfast began to disappear off the table, signaling the beginning of the first day of the year.
"We're in divination," Ron answered. "What about you?"
"I'm in Arithmancy but I'll see you all in Transfiguration later," Izzy said as they walked out of the great hall. When they split up, Izzy made her way to the seventh floor of the castle, all the way to classroom 7A where a small group of students were chatting before the bell rang.
Entering, she saw a few open seats, but most of the ones that were open were around or between groups of friends, and Izzy didn't particularly care to get between their conversations. Instead, she chose to sit near a blonde girl who was bent over what Izzy presumed to be the course book. The girl looked up and offered a nod in acknowledgement before stooping over the book again.
The professor walked in a minute later.
"Wands away, books out! Absolutely no talking in my class unless it is a question and a relevant one at that!" the professor said as she walked up to the desk. The speech reminded Izzy of the one Snape had given, though this one wasn't nearly as terrifying. "I am Professor Vector, teacher of Arithmancy here at Hogwarts. Arithmancy is a multifaceted subject, and subsequently one of the most difficult." Professor Vector stood behind the desk, her back ramrod straight and her hands held tightly behind her back. She very much reminded Izzy of one of the muggle military instructors she had seen in a movie she snuck into one time.
"This year, you will learn the art of divination through numbers, a far different process than what some of the simpler minded fools are taking in the actual divination class," Professor Vector said with the barest hint of a smirk on her lips.
Izzy hadn't heard too much about Septima Vector, but the thing most commonly agreed on by students was that she was one of the strictest teachers in Hogwarts. She was fair however, so while people said she was strict, the consensus was that she was still better than Professor Snape.
"You will learn frustration in this class, but know this, it is one of the most rewarding disciplines, especially as we begin to dive deeper and deeper into this subject. As a little hint as to the true power of arithmancy, I will ask you this: can you imagine creating spells?" At those words, a few students sat up straighter, now suddenly more intrigued at the prospect.
"We will work on the technique during our fourth and fifth years. For now, divination through arithmancy is a great starting part. So, open your books to page two hundred and…"
The class progressed as Izzy had expected. She found out first hand that Professor Vector was indeed a very strict woman, but it became apparent quickly that if you were willing to put in the work, she was willing to go as far as she possibly could to help you.
As Izzy packed up, she caught a glimpse of Hermione's bushy hair rushing out the classroom and down the hallway.
"That was foolish you know," a voice said from Izzy's left. The blue haired metamorph looked up and saw the blonde she had been sitting next to for the last hour.
"What was?" Izzy asked, her hair quickly shifting between a multitude of colors before Izzy could get her hair back under control. The blonde Slytherin studied Izzy curiously before looking her in the eye.
"Insulting Pansy and Draco in front of everyone like you did in the great hall. They were rather clever insults for a Gryffindor though, I must say. However it shows the exact Gryffindor charge in attitude one comes to expect from a lion," the girl said. Izzy raised an eyebrow before chuckling.
"Oh I know I insulted them; that was the point," Izzy chuckled as the two walked out of the class together.
"Then you're a lot braver than I gave you credit for, because the two of them will be seeking revenge, or being even at the very least," the girl said in response. Izzy shook her head as they left the seventh floor.
"I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't prepared for the backlash. That kind of thing is nothing new for me," Izzy said. "I never got your name," she said after realizing they had walked nearly to the same class without having once introduced themselves.
"Right, how rude of me," the girl sad before pinning Izzy with a look from her ice blue eyes. "I am Daphne Greengrass, Scion to the most ancient and noble house of Greengrass," she said, giving a slight bow of her head.
"Isabella Verona, no titles to my name except for 'Izzy' so you should only call me that. I haven't gone by Isabella in years," Izzy explained.
"Izzy, then," Daphne said, her face carefully cool. "I've only ever gone by Daphne and only Tracey can call me anything else so…don't try it," she continued with a smirk.
The two entered the ancient runes class and sat down, noticing that the teacher was already present and reading through a book. The cover looked to be written entirely in runes, and if Izzy had to guess, so was the rest of the book. A few minutes later, and a rustling at the back of the class that caused Izzy to turn and see her best friend scrambling to take her seat, the professor started the class.
"Welcome to Ancient Runes. My name is Professor Babbling. In this class you will learn the art behind reading, drawing, carving, and powering runes. For the next two and half years, we will be learning the Futhark runes to help build your understanding. It's a little early to tell you this, but should you stick with this class past your O. , we will then move on to more advanced runes and runic languages. Now, can anybody tell me what Futhark is?" the professor asked, turning to the class. Izzy raised her hand slowly as did Daphne.
"Yes," Professor Babbling said, pointing to Daphne.
"Futhark is first and foremost a written language used by ancient Norse witches and wizards, typically carved into marker stones by the muggles of the time, ancient witches and wizard used them to translate into magical power, a rudimentary secondary foci, if you will," Daphne said, drawing from some of the readings in the book.
"Excellent, five points to Slytherin for a correct answer and another five for making the connection to secondary foci!" Professor Babbling said. "Yes! Runes are powerful, very powerful indeed, which is why, for the duration of this class, we will not be doing any rune carving," Babbling explained. The announcement earned several groans from the people eager to learn the ways of runic crafting. Professor Babbling chuckled for a moment.
"I know, it's a bit of a disappointment but I'll explain why. Rune's can be volatile if done wrong. I've had many a student think they've done everything correctly without consulting me only for the Rune to overpower itself and blow up in their faces. Runes can be very dangerous if mishandled or carved incorrectly. Consider this your warning. If I find any of you have done anything involving runes without first consulting me, you'll be out of this class and in a three month long detention before you can even say Hogwarts!" Babbling said, snapping at the end. Many of the third years nodded with wide fearful eyes, but Izzy's only widened in excitement.
"Now, today, we'll begin by going over what Futhark means and how to correctly identify the runes," Babbling said before turning around and beginning to draw symbols on the blackboard.
Potions was next, and Hermione had disappeared as she practically ran out of ancient runes, so Izzy walked down to potions with Daphne.
"Do you want to separate? I'm sure your fellow Slytherins wouldn't appreciate being seen with a lowly lioness," Izzy said with a laugh even though she was being serious.
"I could ask the same for you, you are friends with Ronald Weasley after all, the notorious Snake hater," Daphne countered. Izzy snorted.
"As if he could ever have any control over who I call my friends. If I were Harry, maybe I would let him tell me who I shouldn't be friends with, but I'm not, so I do what I want," Izzy explained.
"Well in that case, I don't personally care. I'm somewhat of a loner, with the exception of Tracey of course, within Slytherin. Besides, I think in the name of ambition, the case can be made that having you, a metamorph as my friend, would be beneficial," Daphne explained.
"How did you-"
"Know you were a metamorph? Well it's fairly obvious. Glamour charms exist of course, but for a third year to maintain one for so long, not to mention that you now have heterochromatic eyes when you didn't before, is near unheard of. Speaking of, I like the colors; very unique," Daphne said. Izzy smiled.
"Well thank you. It's fun deciding what I want to look like in the morning," Izzy said.
The two reached the potions class with plenty of time to spare, but Izzy noticed the oddest thing. Draco was missing from his usual spot while Pansy was looking around for the blonde.
"Wonder what the blonde ponce has done now," Daphne muttered.
"Who knows. I'll more than likely find out from Harry and he'll tell me whatever has Draco missing from potions," Izzy answered as the two separated and took their usual seats, Izzy right beside Hermione.
A moment later, Snape stormed in with his robes billowing, looking every bit the dungeon bat he was, before coming to a stop in front of his desk. He crossed his arms and glowered over the heads of the third year potions class.
"I have been going easy on you these past two years," he said, causing many to choke on air in shock. "But no more. You will be expected to begin brewing your potions from limited instructions, beginning to rely on feel for what you are making. In other words, intuition, rather than complete instructions. You will of course, be told of the ingredients and their proper measurements, but many of the easier requirements such as brew time will be excluded from the given texts," Snape snapped, flicking his wand and lighting all of the burners under the cauldron. "Open your books to page one hundred and sixty-two and begin the draught of eternal sleep. The ingredients are in their usual spots."
With that, Izzy and Hermione rushed to the cabinet where they collected their ingredients.
"So what happened to Draco? He's usually here reveling in torturing Neville," Izzy whispered.
"Idiot got himself hurt by a hipogriff. Insulted the creature and it took offense. Raked the idiot with its talons," Hermione whispered back.
"Oh no, the poor hipogriff," Izzy said seriously. Hermione barely managed to stifle a laugh just in time before Snape's eyes snapped up. The two continued their potion in silence, handing it in when they were done. Snape graded it right then and there.
"Acceptable," he drawled. Izzy's fist clenched behind her back. "The color is two shades darker than it should be, though it will perform with the desired results, even if they are stronger than desired. Mister Longbottom's on the other hand," he said, casting a disdainful look to the sleeping draught, "would sooner kill the patient than put them to sleep!" he snapped. Neville cowered and whimpered behind Izzy.
She often wondered how Snape got away with being so awful.
After class, Daphne and Izzy separated, going to lunch with their own friends.
"We should go see Hagrid, he's probably feeling bad about what happened in class," Ron said as they passed the entrance, catching a glimpse of Hagrid walking into his hut.
"I'd imagine he's probably feeling more worried about how he's going to be viewed as a teacher," Izzy said as they entered the great hall.
"Yeah, he probably thinks he's gonna get fired or something. Malfoy and his thugs were threatening all kinds of things," Harry said. Izzy bit her lip.
She wasn't friends with Hagrid like Harry and Ron were, but she respected the half giant a great deal more than most of the professors in the school. He was friendly, treated everyone with respect, and always had something nice to say whenever she passed him.
Lunch, as well as the rest of the day, seemed to pass by rather quickly, such was the nature of the first day of the new term.
As the light of the day began to fade, Izzy followed behind Harry with Ron and Hermione as he led them to Hagrid's hut. Upon opening the door, it was apparent that he'd been drinking. He was a lot more miserable than Izzy thought he'd be, which wasn't surprising given how kindhearted Hagrid was; he took every failure personally, especially this one.
"You've not been fired Hagrid," Hermione said with a gentle smile.
"Not yet. 'S only a matter o' time it is after Malfoy…" he said, trailing off.
"How bad was it?" Izzy asked.
"He was moanin' sayin' e' was in agony even after Madame Pomfrey had a good look at 'im," Hagrid said before taking a gulp of whatever was in his large mug.
"He's faking it then," Harry declared. "Madame Pomfrey healed my broken bones last year and fixes a lot more every other day. Malfoy's just milking it for all it's worth."
Hagrid didn't stop wallowing in his misery until later in the night when he managed to sober up a little and realized who exactly he was talking to. Izzy thought it was strange that Hagrid suddenly just exploded like he did before forcing and then escorting all four of them back to the castle. She guessed it had something to do with the dementors, but even Harry agreed that something was off.
The week rolled on, and Izzy had decided that Ancient Runes was by far one of her favorite classes. Sure, they were only sketching out Runes and listing their purposes, but Izzy had far more ambitious goals after only a few days in the class. The possibilities seemed endless to what runes could do, and Izzy couldn't wait till she got to the point where they could begin carving them and harnessing their true potential near the end of the school year.
Thursday eventually rolled around and Malfoy finally showed up to his class which unfortunately happened to be potions. He strolled in, late of course though Snape wouldn't dare say anything to one of his perfect Slytherins, where sat down near Pansy.
"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" she simpered, batting her eyelashes.
"Yeah," he answered, and Izzy wanted to gag at the faux grimace he plastered on his face.
Overdramatic arse.
Snape regained control of the class, like there was much of a disturbance to begin with, before commanding everyone to get back to work.
"Professor," Malfoy said, raising his 'good' arm. "I'm going to need help chopping my roots."
What. The. Hell. Izzy thought he couldn't get any worse.
Izzy was wrong.
"Weasley! Chop up his roots for him!" Snape said from his desk.
Now, Izzy might've been a metamorph, but even she thought she'd have trouble getting the shade of red that Ron's face got as he walked over to Malfoy's station and began angrily chopping the roots. Izzy knew from the moment Malfoy flicked his eyes up in Snape's direction that it wasn't going to end well.
"He's mangling my roots, Professor," Malfoy drawled.
Quick as a flash, Snape was out from behind his desk and looking at the uneven roots that Ron had chopped. Now, Izzy's roots weren't perfect by any means, but she had taken one extra root in case she had needed it. It had been her first root, and the pieces weren't as even as they should've been. Her next try had been better but Ron's…Ron's were perfect. He had spent so much time carefully cutting them, and Izzy was just Slytherin enough to understand what Snape was likely to do. She switched her own imperfect roots with Ron's, leaving Izzy with just enough to complete the potion.
"Weasley, switch roots Malfoy," he said, smiling under his greasy black hair.
"But sir!" Ron said, looking every bit incredulous as Izzy felt for him. She knew it was coming, Snape was sadistic like that, but it didn't make it any better as her hair flared an angry red in sympathy for her friend.
"Now!" Snape barked. Ron looked like he was doing his best to bite off his tongue rather than let slip whatever retort was on the tip of it. HE turned back towards his roots and looked at them in confusion before Izzy gave a very subtle nod of her head. Reluctantly, Ron gave up his roots to Malfoy before taking his seat in front of Izzy who then handed him a rolled-up piece of parchment.
They contained his perfectly cut roots.
'Don't look back, just go grab another root and hide it in your robe,'
Izzy's note said. Ron stood up and did as she instructed.
"Professor, I'll need someone to skin this shrivelfig," Draco said, practically whining.
"Potter," Snape called out. "You can skin Malfoy's shrivlefig."
Harry sighed and did as he was told. Eventually, Izzy could hear that the two were having a heated conversation. It drew Ron into the conversation at some point, and the redhead even threatened Draco by the looks of it.
Eventually class began to wind down, sort of. Neville almost lost his toad thanks to Snape. In all honesty, if it hadn't been for Hermione helping Neville fix his butchered potion, the toad would've been a pile of goo on Snape's desk. As it was, Gryffindor lost points because of Snape's near cruelty in trying to kill a student's pet. No one raised any objections however, so Snape did what he wanted anyway.
The four walked to lunch that day and ate until Seamus burst in with a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!" Seamus shouted as he slammed down the paper.
"Who?" Ron asked.
"Sirius Black of course!" Seamus said, drawing the attention of everyone nearby. Hermione read the paper and got to the part where Sirius Black had been.
"Dufftown! That's not far from here!" she exclaimed. Izzy looked up worriedly to Harry and reached out, taking his hand. She gave it a good squeeze in reassurance.
"He's not going to get you here, Harry," Izzy said. He gave a small smile and nodded, reassured by her words. He looked over however at the picture of a man, raging in madness against the hands that held him back, his prisoner number held in front of him.
"Come on," Ron said. "Just put it out of your mind and eat. Eating always makes me feel better." Hermione snorted.
"You do nothing but eat," she jabbed, cracking a smile. Ron laughed with Harry.
"That's true. I'd eat all the time if I could!" Ron declared.
"We know," his three friends chorused' They continued to eat lunch, talking about nothing but laughing about everything, trying to take Harry's mind off the murderous psycho on the loose. All too soon, the bell rang signaling the beginning of their afternoon classes.
As the three packed up, Hermione's bag split, causing several books to fall out.
"Why are you carrying so many books?" Izzy asked as she hefted a few of them off the ground for Hermione who was busy trying to fix her bag.
"You all know how many classes I'm taking," she said defensively.
"Yeah but we only have a double defense this afternoon. You don't need all of them," Ron joined in. Hermione huffed out a breath.
"Well it's always good to be prepared," Hermione shot back before rushing out of the hall, leaving Izzy, Ron, and Harry behind.
"What's gotten into her?" Ron asked.
"I don't know…but she seems to be under a lot of stress," Izzy said, chewing on her lip worriedly, her hair flashing and eyes flashing to a deep purple as she headed out the door of the great hall.