Hi All,
Welcome to chapter 19 of Little Red Bird. Thanks for showing it love.
As always, keep the flames low, any constructive criticism is welcome. Drop a comment, it's always refreshing and gives more ideas on how I could improve the fic, or maybe even take the plot forward.
As always,Don't like, Don't read. - DZ2
Disclaimer: All HP rights and characters owned by JK Rowling, and fics are created for entertainment only
After the incident, the entire school was abuzz with rumours of Harry Potter being the next Dark Lord, the Heir of Slytherin who can speak Parseltongue. The Hufflepuffs especially gave him a wide berth and hushed whispers along with disdainful glares whenever he came across them.
It had been frustrating for the Trio, especially Harry as the Slytherin's didn't waste any opportunity spreading rumours and hate against him amongst the other student body. Draco took special interest in taunting and agonizing the trio, so much so that Ron ended up hexing himself again with his broken wand trying to curse the Malfoy heir.
Ginny meanwhile continued her workout sessions with Astoria. Both of them started showing progress and were now accustomed enough to their training to not feel exhausted throughout the day post workouts. Ginny wanted to surprise Bella the next time she saw her with her much fitter body. She'd be able to last much more in fights and training with Bella. That was something which she missed the most at Hogwarts.
She couldn't use the combat spells here in their dueling lessons, her only solace was reading the Dark Arts collection she received from Bella. There was so much to learn, but she could only do theory for now.
Ginny sat on her bed, lost in thoughts contemplating the same, the translated copy of 'L'attrait des Arts Noir: Guide du Débutant' left open on her lap forgotten. The communication mirror on her bedside table started to vibrate, which got Ginny out of her musings.
She lifted the mirror and as expected it was Bella's face flashing inside. She answered the call with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Hey, Bella!"
"Hello, little Bird!" Bella greeted her with her usual cheery self, however her smile fell looking at Ginny's distrait demeanour. "What's the matter, Ginny? Are you alright? Is there a problem dear?"
Ginny gave her a throaty laugh, "Bella! Everything's fine and no, there's no problem as such. Although…"
"Although, what dear?" Bella was starting to feel a bit distraught with her hesitance.
"I, uhm I… feel like I'm not doing enough." Ginny responded feeling slightly abashed.
"You are, little Birdie! I'm so proud of you. Look, how far you've come in just a year of training. You're just 11 and have a lot of time to become better. Remember, you beat the hell out of 5 students older than you. And-"
"But Potter, Ron and that bloody Mudblood beat me. I hadn't felt such helplessness lying in a puddle of my own blood Bella. I felt PATHETIC! Everyday it crawls my skin to know that they're much better than me, Bella. They were careless at best and still managed to beat me. You trained me Bella! Yet I was beaten." Ginny exploded all the hidden rage and self blame pent up over the past few weeks. She finished off with a sigh hanging her head in disappointment.
Bella's entire demeanour changed and her face morphed into a face emanating fury, one which Ginny rarely saw, and this was one of those days. "GINEVRA DRUELLA LESTRANGE! THAT IS ENOUGH! Now, you listen to me girl! I refuse to molly-coddle anyone having such a pathetic, abhorrent and self-wallowing behaviour, much less from the Heir to my House. Yes, you were beaten! Do learn to take your loss with your chin high. Learn from your mistakes, you lost because you forgot the first rule I taught you. And that's to NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN. You became complacent and cocky. So, just accept it, buck up and train harder. Work on your physical training. Once you're back for the summer, I'll start with hand-to-hand martial combat training."
Ginny felt thoroughly chastised and simply nodded with her gaze down and away from the mirror. "I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't mean it that way. I'll try my best to not let you down or myself down in future."
"That's better. Enough with the glum face, it's December, soon I'll see you for Yuletide." Bella quipped trying to cheer her up.
Ginny shook her head letting out another soft breath. "Dad n Mum are visiting Romania to meet Charlie for Christmas. All of my brothers are staying back at Hogwarts and I'll be staying at Hogwarts courtesy of that. Sorry Bella! I'll see you for Ostara celebrations hopefully."
Bellatrix's face fell at not being able to see her for Yule celebrations. She did get her a nice dress and an invite to the Malfoy Masquerade Yule Ball by Narcissa, under a pseudonym of course. It would have been the perfect way for Cissy to show her the wizarding pureblood elites and help her integrate further into the world she deserved.
Bella schooled her features and tried to assuage Ginny's disappointment, "Hey Birdie! Now, now. None of that sourness. We'll meet when we meet, but that's no cause for such a crestfallen look. Cheer up dear. Why don't you tell me about what's going on at school."
Ginny just gave a shrug in response, "Well, it's nothing much apart from our last discussion. I did see Potter earlier today in the Library, him and his pathetic duo. He's practically an outcast now, I've asked Draco to spread the rumour as much as possible. It was fun for the time it started, but now it's just boring."
"Hmmmm, why would you say that?"
Ginny raised her eyebrows, "Why would I say what?"
"That it's boring." Bella replied with a tilt of her head.
"Two reasons, we know there's no heir so they're on a wild goose chase. Secondly, there won't be any attacks, so it'll just die down. So far the students know only the cat was killed and I was attacked, which Potter knows wasn't the Heir as it was them. So, you get the point, right?" Ginny pointed out while moving to lie on her stomach, propping the hand mirror against the bed's headboard.
Bellatrix just gazed back at her and her eyes widened as if having some sort of epiphany. "Hold on dear, I'll be back in a jiffy!" She just left the mirror on her desk facing the ceiling and dashed off before Ginny could get a word in.
Ten-fifteen minutes of staring at the empty mirror waiting for Bella, she dozed off with her head propped up on her arms. After an uncertain amount of time, Bella's voice got her out of dreamland. "Ughh! Bella! Do keep it down, I was sleeping!" Ginny replied with an irritated whine.
"We were on a call, little Bird. It's rude to doze off when talking to someone." Bellatrix quipped back.
"Exactly! I waited for you to return for Merlin knows how long. Where were you anyway?" Ginny remarked while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"I went to get the answer to your question. And you may now thank me."
"Huh! Thank you? For what?" she asked incredulously.
"I can help you remove the boredom and keep up this ruse of Slytherin's heir." Bella remarked with a smirk on her face.
"Really…" Ginny drawled, not quite convinced by whatever inane suggestions Bella might have.
"Yes, if only you're up for it. It's a slightly dark and obscure spell, not too difficult but very effective. The Dark Lord had gifted me a book long back he got from the old magical district of Macedonia during his travels." Bella responded, reminiscing her own training, given by the Dark Lord himself.
"Of course I'm up for it, but what's the spell and whom do I use it on? What exactly are you proposing Bella? I'm missing out on important bits." Ginny quipped, feeling slightly irritated.
"Well, why don't you let me finish then first! As I was saying, you may have heard of the Basilisk, right?" Ginny shook her head in response as Bella continued, "Well, then let me start from the beginning. The spell book I have deals with curses that mimics the effects of certain magical beings when they attack, along with variations that could mimic the magical signature of these animals as well. However, we need the first spell only. You said Potter is a parseltongue, so I'll give you a spell that mimics the Basilisk's, also known as king of the serpent's, gaze. Indirect exposure to it's gaze petrifies the person and this spell does the same."
"Oh! Oh.. okay! I got your point, this will point fingers at him, and every student petrified will lead them to distrust him even more. That's Brilliant!" Ginny's eyes lit up with glee at getting another shot at the Trio, however, one critical doubt lingered in her mind. "But what if they identify me once they're revived?"
"Yes, now, the spell is 'Oculo Rex-Anguis' and there's no associated movement apart from pushing the wand pointing towards the victim. It will petrify the victim and they shall not have memory of the attacker as it would work in a way to wipe the last half an hour of his/her memory once they're revived." Bella was in her full mentor mode, truly excited to be part of causing chaos at Hogwarts once again.
"Okay, I can do that, but I may need to practice it first. I can't leave it on chance. Is there a counter-curse to revive the victim? How do I revive my target?" Ginny questioned back skeptically.
"Why the hell would you need to revive the victims?" Bella responded befuddled.
"Not the actual ones, the target. I'm planning to practice it on a few rats to get used to it."
"There are two ways, first is a potion made from mandrakes. Second is 'Obscuro Finite', a general dark counter-curse which works on most curses in this book." Bella replied, shutting the cover of the spell book.
"Great! Now that's out of the way! Whom do I target? Who's vulnerable as well as inconsequential?" Ginny pondered aloud.
"There is only one right answer. And you already know it." Bella added with an evil smirk of her own.
A face splitting grin crossed Ginny's face as they plotted and planned late into the night.
10 December, 1992
Colin Creevey was having a relatively good day. He had just got a snap of his hero. It was a candid shot, just as Harry came into the castle from Hagrid's hut. His collection grew higher, thanks to being in the same House as the famous Harry Potter. It was this euphoria that he didn't notice a hooded figure tailing him silently into the secluded corridor which led to the Gryffindor Common Room entrance.
He came to a halt and turned around to look, his heart thumping slightly, a chill ran down his spine as he peeked around unable to find a soul in sight. He slowly turned around and before he could walk off a leg locker hex hit his leg. He panicked and struggled but couldn't move his legs as fear coursed through his veins.
Within a few moments, someone was behind him, someone slightly taller who had their wand pressed into his neck.
A cold voice whispered into his other ear, "Hello, Muddy!"
"Wh...who a..a..are you?" Colin stuttered in fear of the strange girl's voice. His mates warned him about the pureblood bigots, likely it's one of them.
"Someone who'll remove filth like you." the stranger cackled into his ears. "Not yet, though. Good night, Mudblood."
The stranger moved in front of him a few feet away, her wand still trained on his chest, as he stood petrified in fear, while she removed her hood.
"Weasley!" he breathed out as he was hit squarely in the chest with the Dark Petrification curse.
Ginny stood smirking at her handiwork after removing the leg locker from him and watching the mudblood's body frozen wide-eyed like a statue. She moved to stand deep inside the alcove upon hearing footsteps approach.
It was Potter walking towards the mudblood's body when he came to a halt feeling utterly shocked and tried to touch Colin's shoulder. He wanted to get away from the corridor and made a run for it just as he turned right banging right into the caretaker Filch.
Filch, who already blamed Potter for his beloved cat's murder, saw the petrified body and held Potter by his robes yelling, "Now, you're done. Bloody caught, red handed. Potter!"
"I..I swear it wasn't me. I just came across him like that." stuttered Harry as he heard Professor McGonagal walking hastily towards them, "What on Earth is going on here? Argus, Leave Mr. Potter at once."
"Over there, Professor! This boy, I caught him running." the old caretaker replied gruffly, pointing towards the petrified body.
"Good Lord! Argus, get the Headmaster immediately." Professor McGonagal replied horrified at the attack on a student.
Harry looked up nervously as Filch left his robes and limped towards the Headmaster's office, "Professor! I swear I'm innocent."
The stoic professor gave him a sad sigh, "I'm afraid this doesn't look good for you, Mr. Potter!"
The Headmaster arrived shortly alongside the Hufflepuff Head Sprout and the Potions Professor. "Minerva! Do you know what happened here?" By this time, most students from the adjoining Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers gathered around, some even giving hateful glares at Harry.
"I'm afraid I don't have much to say right now, Albus. It seems Mr. Creevey has been petrified. I do not know how, though. Severus, please help take him to the infirmary."
"Ofcourse, students, return to your Common rooms, immediately. No one shall leave until further notice from their House Heads. Mr. Potter, you too. I'll call for you later." the Headmaster ordered in a stern voice, his eyes no longer twinkling as usual.
Everyone started moving towards their respective dorms as the potions professor levitated the body towards the Hospital Wing alongside the remaining staff.
Within a few moments, the entire corridor was empty and silent. Ginny stepped out of the alcove looking outside the window towards the moonlit sky with an uptick of her lips ghosting into a smile, "Let the games… begin!"
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