The stuffed heart

And the clock was ticking: Tick-tock! Tick-tock!

"Damned clock!" Voldemort cursed. He was standing alone in the big dining room, all his followers too scared to stay around him. He was very prickly. More prickly than usually and none of them had a death wish. Nor even Bellatrix was brave enough to stay.

Voldemort cast a quick spell and the wooden clock blew out. Silence at least. He put his wand on the table next to him and tried to sat still at the table. He stood again and paced around the room. Eventually, he threw a glance at the huge bookshelves from the next room. There were thousands of books. He had the slightest idea what type of book he wanted to read.

A peacock honked and Voldemort felt like wishing to strangle the bird.

"Damned peacock. Shut up, you stupid bird." His voiced thunder in the old room, but the bird didn't seem to be intimidated. "Lucius, made that stupid bird silent or I'll strangle you as well!" He commanded. But the bird was even more vehement, its high-pitched calls getting Voldemort crazy.

Lucius hurried towards the garden to make the bird stop. The peacocks had been Narcissa's favorites, but he could see in the scared glance she'd thrown towards him that she had no power to ask him to spear the bird. All they could care about at the moment was to survive another day. They were locked inside Lucius's office, the three of them, and had stood there silent until they heard the Dark Lord calling for Lucius.

Narcissa wanted to tell him that everything would be alright, but she'd long stopped believing it. She longer had the power to convince Draco of that. He was 17, but he was still a boy. Her only boy. She'd promised she would do everything to keep him safe, but she was no longer sure she had that power. He was terrified. Her spoiled, cheerful, little boy was gone. Over night, her little boy had been replaced by a shell of his former self. A shell that would not be easily be tricked that future would be shiny and easy for him.

At that moment, Narcissa would have put her life at the feet of the one who could guarantee her son would survive. Whoever that person might be…

Eventually, Voldemort picked a book and sat once again at the table. He opened the book only to find he knew the book pretty well. Long ago he'd studied from a very similar book. But he hadn't been alone at the time. A bright, pretty witch was sitting next to him, getting some notes down from the book while he kept pretending he was repeating the spells in his head. Well, he'd tried, but somehow he'd ended up watching the girl and forgetting what he was supposed to do.

He set the book on fire. He was about to explode. He wanted to set the entire mansion on fire.

"Breath deeply!''A voice spoke in his head. "When you feel you can't control yourself count to three and think about me." The voice giggled in his head.

"Why do I want to think of you?" He remembered himself asking the girl.

"Because I look prettier than any explosion you may want to cause, am I not?" It seemed so natural when it was her who said that. He wondered if she had been human or a product of his own imagination.

There were times during his school years when he used to stay awake at night wondering if all those things had really happened or he had imagined them. As time passed it became clear she was real as she became a frequent topic of conversation in the boys' chambers. Her name had always been on everybody's lips since her first days at Hogwarts due to her predisposition for getting into trouble. But she was brilliant. Maybe the most brilliant witch he'd ever met. It was no surprise she got bored during some classes or that she had to go to the library after curfew to look for new books.

But starting with the fourth year, as the sweet girl started to change into a mesmerizing woman, all the boys began to gravitate around her like bees around honey. Tom had known for a very long time that their brains were smaller than their stomach, but even so, he was shocked to find out they were acting like some stupid puppies around her.

But not all of them. Some seemed quite good at finding the right words and amusing her. And she liked all the attention she got. Sometimes she would share with him the cookies she'd gotten from her admirers. It infuriated him to see how much she enjoyed the gifts. He had never liked sweets anyway and in his fourth year he started to hate them and he loathed the fact Amberrose loved them so much.

Strange things started to occur. Every boy who'd managed to speak with her would be affected by what was later called Amberrose's curse: each of them would suffer an accident and would end at the hospital for a while. So, soon they started to get scared of her and they even ran away every time they met her. All, except for a stupid huge Hufflepuff who didn't seem to bother much about the curse.

"Do you know how difficult it was not to get caught? Dumbledore had his eyes on me all the time." He hissed, speaking to the girl from his past. Then he burst into a mad rush of laughter. "That fool is dead now. I don't have to be afraid of him. I am afraid of no one."

His laughter echoed into the deep silence of the mansion. No one of the inhabitants dared to make a sound. They all waited, well hidden in different corners of the mansion, they waited like a pity mouse in his den the moment when the predator would strike. They couldn't decipher the meaning of his words, but it was clear the Dark Lord wasn't happy.

"Stupid girl! I'll make you regret it. "

It had been so many decades since he hadn't thought about her. But she was wrong. Thinking about her didn't make him feel better. It made him scared. He hadn't been scared since he was a boy.

So many decades later and he wasn't able to meet her yet...

Adwin – the house-elf Viper had bought from Eiseea – was completely alone. Apart from the black cat, of course. The room was an ordinary hotel room. Viper had caused a lot of chaos by looking for her clothes and she hadn't bothered to put the clothes back before leaving the hotel room. So, Adwin started to clean the place. It wasn't a big deal. He was used to cleaning an entire mansion so a bedroom and a tiny bathroom were a piece of cake for him.

Yet he was terrified by her because he was terrified by snakes.

"Snakes are bad, bad, bad. Cold-hearted creatures. They poison you with their fangs and then you die. That's what mama used to say…bad, bad, bad. They are very bad." The house-elf muttered as he put the clothes back in the wardrobe.

As he was about to pick the next dress the head of a stuffed snake came out from the pile of dresses. Adwin ran as fast as he could and hid in the bathroom.

"They are bad, bad. It's going to bite me. He's coming after me." The poor house-elf sobbed. "They don't have a heart. No heart. No heart. That's why they are unable to feel. They don't feel because they don't have a heart. If the snake were to have a heart, no matter how small, he would be able to love and he wouldn't kill me. So, Viper doesn't have a heart, or does she? That's why she is so sad. It's because she doesn't have a heart to help her feel. And neither had the little snake she carries in her luggage ."

He slowly opened the door and tip-toped towards the stuffed snake.

"It is still there. It hasn't followed me. I'll make you a heart if you promise not to bite me. Then you'll be able to feel. You won't be cold anymore." Adwin told the toy. "Do you want a heart? A small one. "

Adwin cut a part form his ragged tower he was wearing and started to sew it.

"Will Viper be happy if her snake started to feel?" The house-elf wondered. "What if it gets bullied by other snakes? It's small." He said as he showed the little heart to the stuffed snake. "Do you like it?" He went closer to the toy and then he suddenly stopped. "I'm afraid of snakes. I can't …you won't bite me, will you? "He mumbled as he got a step closer. "Viper didn't bite me. Maybe she has a heart. Or does she want to eat me later and she's saving me for when she doesn't have any food left. Maybe, if I cook something for her, she won't eat me. But first, I need to give the snake this heart. If it has a heart he may become my friend and he may convince Viper not to bite me. And we'll play together. Together." He chanted happily.

He gathered the courage and, with his eyes closed, he took the stuffed snake, cut it, and put the tiny heart inside his smooth body.

"We are friends now. From now on you'll be able to feel." He smiled as he had finished sewing the stuffed snake. "You'll be my favourite friend. Now let's finish the cleaning, shall we? You just stay here waiting. "He added as he put the snake on the bed. "You are green like her? Is she as nice as you? I initially thought you were bad and cruel, but you seem to be a kind snake. Is it because of the heart I've given you? Is it? Is it?"

Adwin was as happy as a child. "You're green and funny. You're the cutest snake I've ever seen." As if agreeing to him, the stuffed snake watched him with his two black button eyes. "It hurts to be bitten by a snake. Master Rosier had a very bad snake.. It hurt...It hurt." A tear appeared in his eye, but Adwin wiped it quickly. "But you are nice. Very nice. "

The snake was hardly an elaborate toy. It was quite a mystery how Adwin figured out it was a snake and not a caterpillar. Maybe it was because its body was too long to be a caterpillar. One could have sworn it was a huge green sock with eyes and mouth in the shape of a nicely embroidered U line.

"Snake, is Viper getting married?" Adwin asked as he noticed the wedding-dress Viper had left hanging on the wardrobe's door? Why does she need to marry? She isn't in love. My mum said that when you are in love your eyes sparkle like stars. Viper's eyes don't sparkle at all. So she isn't in love."