Struggles of a Slytherin
Kate climbed the marble stairs lightly. She was happy with how things turned out that afternoon, but she met Peeves on the way.
- 'Boo-ooh-ooh, there's a Slytherin cry-baby, a first year with an ouchie – ouchie, he felt so lonely, I threw him chalk to keep him busy.'
- 'Hi, Peeves. A Slytherin first year you say? What does he look like? Is he black?' The young witch felt anxiety listening to Peeves's song, it brought a picture of Thor in her mind.
- 'I think he was, now he's much more whity…'
- 'Can you tell me where he is, Peeves?'
- 'No, I won't tell you that!'
- 'Please, Peeves, maybe he needs some help. There's just one black first year in Slytherin, and I'm scared for him.'
- 'He didn't want to play with me, I won't let him play with someone else!' said Peeves as he left, banging on the walls as loud as he could.
Kate rushed in the opposite direction, trying to find where Thor could be. She found no one on that level, she decided to go down one floor. She knew their Common Room was somewhere in the dungeons, she thought that if he was hurt, he maybe didn't make it that far. The young witch was walking lightly, acting carefully as the words Peeves said awoke a sense of danger in her, and she checked every classroom she found on the way. At some point, she heard voices of guys approa-ching the next corner.
- 'Where the hell did he go?'
- 'If he's going to Snape, we're in troubles!'
- 'He wouldn't have done that, he knows he'd have to suffer the consequences for it.'
Kate walked more slowly, then stopped in front of the next door, just as they appeared in front of her. That was three Slytherin boys, fourth or fifth year, their wands in their hands. Kate released her wand from its holder, ready to counter, none of the boys noticing her movement.
- 'What are you doing here?' she asked calmly.
- 'It's none of your business. Get away from here!' shouted one of them.
- 'I have the same right to be here as you.'
- 'But we're three and you're alone, so if we tell you to leave, you do so!' said another one.
- 'You don't scare me. I don't think you're a match for me,' she said quietly.
The first boy cast a spell, Kate repelled it with ease, then all three started to aim, one after the other. The witch was countering, repelling and dismissing every spell. Then the door on the side opened.
- 'Kate!'
That was Thor. The danger changed place, Kate cast a protective charm around him, just in time as all three boys shot spells at him. The young witch rushed inside the classroom, closed the door and pointed her wand at it.
- 'Protego Maxima!' she said. 'That should keep them busy for a moment. What happened to you?'
The boy was looking terrible. His nose seemed broken, his face was swollen and bloody, he had troubles to walk.
- 'They came back in the Common Room after the game, super excited. They were shouting, being loud, and I was trying to work, so I asked them to be a bit more quiet. They didn't like it. A few of them punched me, they stole my wand. One even used the torture curse on me,' he said in a broken voice. 'Someone stopped him. A girl I think. I played dead for a while, when they were all busy on the other side of the room, I ran away. And I hid here.'
- 'It's good that I met Peeves who was singing about a first year Slytherin with an ouchie ouchie. They were looking for you and there would have been no one to stop them this time.'
The blasts hitting the door were deafening.
- 'First I'll take care of your nose, it's broken, let's start with that.' She pointed her wand at it and said 'Episkey!'
His nose cracked, it seemed a bit painful, but she had to make it straight again. Then she stopped everything as a thought just came to her mind.
- 'Maybe I shouldn't heal you right now. How do you intend to get your wand back? Or to go back to your Common Room tonight?' she asked suddenly.
- 'I don't know. I really don't.'
- 'Tell Snape!'
- 'What? Are you mad? They'll kill me for that!'
The three boys were screaming insanities on the other side of the door, which started to crack slightly. Kate renewed the protective charm.
- 'Let me think a moment, then,' she said, as she started to focus on her Potions Master. 'It would be good for you if Snape happened to walk by,' she whispered.
After a few seconds, he answered her call in his mind. She asked him to come as fast as possible to this classroom, that Thor was in danger, under attack from other Slytherin students. He agreed to come immediately. Kate stayed in contact, he moved to a closer room using Floo powder, then he walked to the scene. As soon as he had a glimpse of the three boys attacking the door, he understood. He asked Kate to stupefy with him at the count of three. The girl stood in front of the door immediately, wand ready as he counted in his mind. 'One –'
- 'What is happening here,' he shouted in the corridor.
'two –'
The attacks on the door stopped.
'three -'
- 'Stupefy!' Kate shouted, the spell blasted the door and made it's way through.
Thor was not understanding anything of what was happening. Snape rushed there.
- 'That was a good one, Labelle,' he said, looking at the three unconscious boys on the ground. 'It was enough for all three of them, you didn't really need me.'
- 'We do need you. Look at him,' she said, showing Thor who was still in the middle of the classroom trying to understand the situation. 'I already took care of his broken nose. They stole his wand, and beat him up. They even used the Cruciatus curse on him. If I had taken care of them by myself and then came to tell you, they would have known he told you what happened, and I don't want to imagine what they would have done to him. So you had to come and see it happening.'
Snape went inside the room and looked at his first year student, then at the three others.
- 'How many people know what happened?' Snape asked the young boy.
- 'All of them. There's just one girl who stopped them when they cursed me, I don't know who it was, I only heard her voice.'
- 'Labelle, take care of him, will you? I need to think shortly,' he said, walking out of the classroom through the blasted door.
Kate turned to the first year boy, put her wand aside, rubbed her hands together and approached them of his face. He moved a bit backwards, but decided to trust the young witch. Slowly, the swellings disappeared and the skin went back to its normal colour.
- 'I saw you had troubles walking. Where is it painful?' she asked him.
- 'My left knee, and here,' he said, pointing at his back.
- 'Let me check.'
She went down on her knees and put her hands around his. The girl closed her eyes, and she could feel the joint, the muscles, the ligaments going back to their normal state. Then she stood up again, went behind the young boy and checked the area of the back he showed.
- 'I don't think I need magic for that,' she said. 'Lie down on the ground and try to relax.'
Thor did as he was told, with some difficulties due to the pain. Kate, back on her knees, grabbed his right leg and started making some movements with it, until they heard a distinct 'clock.' She asked him to go on his side shortly to control his back again, everything was back to normal.
- 'That's it for your back. Anything else?' asked Kate.
- 'No, except the pain from the torture curse, but I don't think there's anything to do against it, except waiting,' he said.
Snape came back into the room, he looked at his student.
- 'Well done, Labelle. You don't even seem exhausted.'
- 'I start to be able to use my energy in a better way,' she answered.
- 'Cromwell, here's your wand,' he said, thrusting a wand in his hands. 'Labelle, I want you to take him away and keep him in security, you don't come to dinner before I'm telling you it's okay to do so. I will have to modify the memories of all my students to make it safe for him to return there tonight. But I don't know how long it will stay safe if he keeps being so clearly and loudly against them.'
- 'All right,' she said.
She took Thor by the hand and led him away.
- 'Labelle, keep your wand ready, it still could be dangerous,' said Snape as they left the classroom, then he repaired the door with a spell.
- 'Can you tell me what happened? I don't understand.'
- 'Not now. When we'll be safe. Keep quiet as long as we're on the way,' she whispered.
They walked a moment, Kate using some of the secret passages she knew to arrive faster. Once they entered the classroom, the witch locked the door, muffled it and put a protective charm on it. Then she looked at the boy.
- 'So, can you answer my questions, now?' he asked. 'You said you were looking for me because of Peeves. I don't really understand how you could get any information out of him, but all right. Can you explain me how Snape arrived right after you said it would be good if he walked by?'
- 'I asked him to come as fast as possible.'
- 'When? How? You didn't know where I was, you looked too surprised when you saw me opening the door, so it couldn't be before.'
- 'Sit down,' she said calmly. 'We have at least one hour to kill, let's make it comfortable. I'm a legilimens. I told him in his mind to come, that you needed his help.'
- 'But he's an occlumens!'
- 'Yes, he is, and really skilled at that. I needed quite some time to enter his mind the first time. But once I find a way… Anyway. Dumbledore asked us to work together on our communication skills through legilimency, as we are both legilimens and occlumens, it is a secure mean of communica-tion. It proved useful today. No one should know that we work together, though, so I trust you not to tell anyone. You're the only one outside of Dumbledore, Snape and me knowing about it.'
- 'How do you manage meeting each other without anyone noticing then?'
- 'Why do you think I regularly have detention with him? I feel bad for Katie, though, she's the only one for whom I'd say something if he's too harsh on her. But I can't tell her why he's picking on her so badly sometimes.'
- 'Why are you telling me if no one should know?'
- 'I don't know. Maybe to show you that sometimes you have to dissimulate, to hide things from others. If you want to be an Auror, you'll have to learn that as well.'
- 'Right now, I think all I want is to finish the school year alive.'
- 'Then listen to me!' Kate said firmly. 'For this time, Snape will take care of this, he will make them forget what happened this afternoon. For the rest of the school year, it's up to you. You'll have to dissimulate how you feel about their ideas. You'll have to trick them into trusting you.'
- 'Do you think it's easy?' he cried.
- 'I know it isn't,' she answered coolly.
- 'And what would you know about it?' he thundered. 'You, the awesome girl who's so good at everything, who's loved by everyone, like, you know what is difficult?'
Kate stood up, there was storm in her eyes, something electric was moving around her. She looked taller and stronger than ever.
- 'Do you really believe you're the only one who experienced difficult things?,' she growled, he didn't answer. 'You don't know anything about me that would allow you to judge!'
She was breathing fast, she could feel her blood beating in her head. Some dust started to move around her, as if wind started blowing. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to calm down.
- 'How easy do you think it is, tell me: I believe as much as you do that this blood-superiority ideo-logy is complete crap. Yet my parents are Death Eaters! I had a twin sister, they killed her after having a vision that one of their daughters would fight against Voldemort. They wanted to avoid the disgrace. You hear that? My parents, my own mother, killed my twin sister! Do you think it's easy? I grew up with people who believe in an ideology I despise! How easy was that in your opinion?'
Kate stopped and looked at him, he was looking at her, eyes wide open, holding onto his chair. He didn't look like he would answer anything.
'I had to play a role my whole childhood, I manipulated them into teaching me all they knew, being a legilimens and an occlumens really helped,' she continued, a bit more quiet. 'But I was alone, I had no one with whom I could talk, no one who could understand anything about what I was going through. I had to deal with the loss of my twin sister by myself, and we were as close as Fred and George are. When I was twelve, I escaped. I met Dumbledore to organise everything so I could be safe here. That's a bit of hard work when nearly a complete house is at risk of giving my identity away. Dumbledore put a Fidelius charm on my past, and I've put another one on my abilities: healing, legilimency, occlumency, seer. I have to conceal information from my best friends on a daily basis, I'm glad they don't mind, they know why I'm here and they trust me. So please, don't tell me it's too difficult to just pretend that you don't mind them being arseholes! No one asks you to pretend you believe that too, just for your own sake, that you don't mind them thinking that.'
- 'I – I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you,' he said.
- 'You're a good student, you have goals you'd like to reach, please understand you have to play with the cards that were given to you. It's a Muggle metaphor.'
- 'I know it. I went to Muggle school, I know a bit about them.'
- 'Would you please try to blend a tiny bit in your House? It's fine if you have friends in other Houses, but you should try to have good contacts with at least a few students from Slytherin. I'm pretty sure a part of them are not really believing this crap, they just say so to fit in with the others. Try to find out who's less brainwashed, get along with them, stop making them believe you are a risk for them. That'll be for later, when you'll be an Auror. As you said, you first have to get out of here alive.'
- 'I can't believe it's a Gryffindor who's teaching me about manipulation,' he sighed.
- 'I could have fit in any House here, but I think the hat made the right choice. I saw that Voldemort will come back, I saw that battles would take place here. That's why I did all I did, and I decided to come here because I wanted to be where it would happen, I prepared myself to be ready for a war. You should start to think like this as well. If you want to help in this fight, you have to first take care that you stay alive. Dead, you'll be useless.'
- 'I'd like to be friend with you,' he whispered.
- 'Really? We're talking about making that you're more safe, and you want to be friend with me, the one student they are the most wary of? They already don't like Gryffindors on principle, but after what happened with Lopez, it seems they feel like I might be dangerous. They're not wrong, but it makes me a terrible choice of friend for you. If you want to have friends in other Houses, go for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.'
- 'I know you're right. But you seem to be the one who can understand best my motivations, and who could help me if I need.'
- 'But I would increase the amount of suspicion they have on you just by my presence. I can give you advices, though. Learn occlumency as soon as possible, learn all defensive spells you can, learn how to disarm an opponent, … Be creative with your spells. If you can move an object in the air, you can make it move to be between you and the spell someone cast for example. Learn to recognise danger, to see when you should shut up and when you should speak. You saw today it's not a game. They're not playing, even if they think it's fun. So take it seriously.'
- 'Yeah... How will we know when we can go to the Great Hall?'
- 'He'll call me. You'll have to go by yourself though, I'll wait and come a bit later, so no one thinks we were together.'
Then someone knocked on the door. Kate stood up immediately, she already had her wand in the hand, she removed the spell muffling the door and asked who was there.
- 'It's us,' said Fred's voice.
With a flick of her wand, she removed all the spells on the door and the twins came in. They looked surprised when they saw Thor sitting there with her. The girl closed the door and put back all protective enchantments.
- 'We met Alec in the kitchen earlier, he said you were with him visiting his mother, but you were both back for a while now,' George explained.
- 'We checked the library and around the lake, then we thought you must be here,' finished Fred.
- 'What happened? Why is he with you?' asked George, pointing at Thor.
- 'After talking with Alec and Kyle, on my way back to the Common Room, I met Peeves who was singing about a first year Slytherin in pain. He only said he was black, so I knew it was Thor, I went looking for him to see if he needed help, and he did. Three older guys from his House were looking for him as well, they had stolen his wand and beaten him up, they wanted to finish their job. I arri-ved at the right moment, he was in a classroom, I joined him and put protective charms on the door. Luckily Snape came around, he stunned them, so I opened the door, we explained what happened, Snape gave Thor his wand back and he asked me to keep him safe and not let him come back before dinner already started, because he has to modify the memories of all students who were in their Common Room when it all started.'
- 'Doesn't sound good. Are you all right?' asked George.
- 'Yeah, Kate took care of my injuries,' answered Thor.
- 'Can we stay here with you?' asked Fred.
- 'Of course,' said Kate.
- 'How did you know Kate was here?' asked Thor.
- 'Because we come here often together!' laughed Fred.
- 'But no one ever comes in this part of the castle!'
- 'That's why Dumbledore designated this classroom as a practice room for me. As I don't like to be alone all the time, I invited my twins to come along,' explained Kate.
- 'Your twins?'
- 'Yeah, Angelina found out the truth at the beginning of the year, Kate is the third twin,' George said with a broad grin.
- 'I think all three of us agree on the feeling,' continued Fred as the two others nodded.
- 'And what are you doing here?' asked Thor.
- 'At the moment, they practise the disillusionment spell, I often brew healing potions and I practise other kind of magic as well,'
- 'Who's teaching them the disillusionment spell?'
- 'Guess,' said Kate as she casually turned George invisible.
- 'Wow, that's so cool,' cried Thor.
- 'There's a reason why I'm not going in Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, I'm a little over the level of first year students,' she said with a smile after making George visible again.
The twins talked about the quidditch game, how they feared they had no chance of winning this year, as Slytherin had won 350 – 60 against Ravenclaw, they would need to win both games with a big difference of point, what seemed impossible with Emma as a seeker. Kate didn't see how to make them feel better about this, so she asked them if they were still decided to go to the Forb-idden Forest the next day, and suddenly the twins found their enthusiasm again. The four students talked together for a while, then Kate heard Snape calling her. He told her that Thor could go to the Great Hall.
- 'I'm sorry to interrupt, but Thor can go eating. It's safe now,' she said calmly. 'Will you find the way back alone or should I bring you back to a place you know better?'
- 'Maybe you could help me on part of the way.'
- 'Why don't we go with him?' asked Fred.
- 'Because we want to avoid putting him back in troubles with the other Slytherins, he should not be seen with a group of Gryffindor students, definitely not me nor my best friends.'
- 'Sounds legit,' commented George.
- 'I'll bring him closer, I'm coming back,' said Kate, removing the enchantments on the door.
She left with Thor, walking quickly. Then at some point she stopped.
- 'I hope you understood, not a word about what I told you today. To anyone, no matter how much you trust them, no one else should know.'
- 'Why didn't they ask you how you knew that it was safe for me to go?'
- 'They know I'm a legilimens, they know I don't answer question, they make up their own theories. I guess they think I checked Snape's mind to see if it was safe for you. Listen, we shouldn't spend time together, at least if we do so, people shouldn't know. You know now where I am every evening when I'm not in the library, as well as at least every Saturday and Sunday morning. If you one day need to talk, share an information, get an advice, you can find me there. Only make sure that no one follows you, if you feel like someone might be following you, don't come. And in between, find yourself another empty classroom and learn to defend yourself.'
- 'Thanks, Kate. We'll see each other in Potions, I guess.'
- 'Of course. Try to act cold and distant with me, it's better for you.'
The young Slytherin left, he rushed to the Great Hall, Kate walked back to Fred and George. When she arrived, she made it clear that no one should learn that they spent time with Thor that afternoon. The twins agreed, they talked a few minutes more, then they went to the Great Hall as well.