Chapter III: The First Few Days of School
AN: I'm changing the story rating to T because of this chapter. Also, this used to be a SI OC but now this is turning into more of just an OC, since I wouldn't act in the same way I am making my character act.
The next morning I didn't bother waiting for Millicent Bulstrode to wake up before leaving. It was probably the common thing to do to travel with your roommate places but I just didn't care to try to make friends with her. I put on my clothes, including my hat and my dragon hide gloves and strolled out of the room. It was very early in the morning, so the room was still dark.
I crossed the common room and was about to the door when an unfamiliar voice said, "Hey, wait a minute. Come here, I want to have a word with you." I turned and saw three older students. The same three that hadn't spoken to me last night in the common room. I raised an eyebrow, surprised that they were awake this early in the morning. So now they're curious. Is that it?
I walked to stand in front of them and asked "What is it?" Suddenly the red head and the girl grabbed my arms and stretched them to either side while forcing me to my knees. I struggled frantically to wrench my arms away but I wasn't strong enough. The other boy with the raven hair slapped me and I gasped.
"Stop struggling." He snarled.
"I'll scream." He hit me in the stomach and I nearly doubled over, my hat falling off at my feet. Now would be a good time to point out that it didn't actually hurt at all. Just like it hadn't hurt when Professor Snape had defended himself. Not that I was going to tell them that. I was just so surprised at what they were doing.
"Like anyone will care." He said coldly. "Now, from now on, you'll do everything we tell you to, is that clear? You have no friends and no chance of surviving unless we decide you get to."
I raised my head, my mouth set in a determined line. "Never." He slapped me again. My head rocked to the side.
"Hold her." He said curtly to the others and then left. He shortly returned, holding something behind his back. "Take off her gloves." He said. Then he grabbed some hair on the back of my head and forced my head back so that I was looking up. I renewed my struggles, beginning to smell something that made my nose burn. Then he brought forward a pouch and dumped a bunch of powder on my face. I screamed. I was on fire, the garlic was burning me. I felt him shake some onto each of my hands as well. It was then that I found out that I actually could cry after all.
"Look at that." The girl said with a voice full of wonder, as if they hadn't caused me any harm to get the result. "Tears of blood." I barely listened. So much pain, too much.
"Now," my tormentor said, kneeling in from of me, "You will do as I say if you value your life."
Then suddenly a voice spoke from behind me, "No Leroy, you will do as I say if you value your life." Leroy looked up, shock on his face.
He stuttered, "P-Prof-Professor Snape. We- we were just teaching this creature-"
"Enough." Snape commanded. I closed my eyes in relief. "Leroy, Susan, John, 50 points from each of you for harming a fellow Slytherin. You will also all serve in detention. Let go of her." When they loosened their grip I collapsed, sniffing as blood was coming out of my nose now too. My face was on the floor and I opened my eyes as I raised myself with my arms, as if doing a push up, my arms shaking with the effort. An alarming number of droplets of blood were dripping onto the carpet from my face. I looked at my hands, drops of blood were forming there too, where the garlic had burned through my skin. I moaned in pain. Suddenly an arm encircled around my waist and gently assisted me to a standing position. Then my legs collapsed out from under me and I blacked out.
000
When Snape woke up that morning he hurriedly went and checked his pockets. Oh no. A feeling of dread filled him. He had meant to give Professor Quirrell the garlic that he had requested last night. The man was paranoid that a vampire from Romania was out to get him. Snape had extracted a promise from Quirrell that he wouldn't use the garlic on any students and Quirrell had reluctantly agreed. After the feast Snape had gone to his supply cabinet to get the garlic. Then he remembered that he was supposed to be in the Slytherin dorm room giving the first years a little speech. When he had gotten there it had been too late and most everyone had gone to bed. There were three students still up though who all jumped up and wanted to ask him about Esmira. He had carefully shut down their questions and left. After that encounter he had gone back to his rooms, exhausted and completely forgetting about delivering the garlic. What if one of those students smelled it on me?
Snape began to run for the Slytherin dorm room. What he encountered made him go cold. He could barely contain his rage as he handed out the punishments. Then Esmira had fainted. Others were coming out of their dorm rooms to investigate, having been woken up by the noise. He ordered them to go back to their rooms. He carried her to the infirmary. He set her down on one of the beds and saw that Madam Pomfrey was helping another patient. One of the new students, unused to the moving staircases, had lost their balance, tumbled down, and broken a leg. Madam Pomfrey directed him to where the blood packets were kept and Snape grabbed one. No doubt she would need to replenish her supply of blood.
When he reached her she was just beginning to stir and he sighed in relief. She opened her eyes as he reached her and he helped her into a sitting position while handing her the packet.
000
Draco woke up to the sound of screaming, it sounded like a girl. An attack? Here? Anyone who messed with Slytherins deserved to pay. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his wand. It took him no time at all to reach the common room where he took it all in at once. The injured girl, held hostage, it was too dark to see who it was, no one had bothered to light the fire or anything. Just then Professor Snape was saying "50 points from each of you for harming a fellow Slytherin. You will also all serve in detention. Let go of her." Draco suddenly found himself furious, how dare they do this? He was no naïve boy, he knew all about backstabbing and putting someone out of commission, but that was all done with carefully placed words and money exchanging hands. This was just senseless. Add to that the fact that this was only school, it wasn't like they were out in the real world yet where things mattered, Slytherins should stick together.
Other people were starting to come out of their rooms now too. Snape helped the girl up as Draco took a couple more steps forward to see who it was. She had had her eyes closed before but now they were open, two glowing spots of red. Draco gasped at the same moment that she collapsed against Snape. He could see his grip around her tighten reflexively to keep her from slumping to the floor. Then he had picked her up. It all happened so fast. Snape noticed Draco and the others watching and ordered them back to their rooms. Draco turned to go, but not before seeing Snape look down at her with a worried expression on his face.
He sat on his bed in a state of near shock. Did Snape feel sorry for her? She was only a creature. And yet…she was also a Slytherin, something he hadn't really thought of before he wrote that letter to father. Not only that…creatures could be useful, house elves were useful after all. There was also the fact that when she had collapsed…she had seemed so helpless, so in need of rescue. Rescue….if only he had been the one to rescue her, then she would be in his debt. Draco grinned, power and money weren't the only things in the world, he figured he would need to be a hero along the way to become the greatest wizard of this age, why not start now?
000
After I finished drinking I looked at Severus Snape, the man who had rescued me twice now. Once from the dangerous place that was the forbidden forest and once from the dangerous place that was the Slytherin dorms. "Thank you. Thank you. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you for all that you've done for me." Actually, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wanted to save his life. I didn't know if it would be possible, but I wanted to try.
Snape, however, merely said after one or two heartbeats of silence, "Be careful for the rest of the day. Tonight I will address the House like I should have done yesterday. I will make it clear that no one is to attack you again." Then he left. After a while Madam Pomfrey came to check up on me, she bandaged my wounds and told me to not worry about going to classes for today, that she would send a note to my professors. I nodded gratefully. She told me to go ahead and go back to my rooms, since my bandages shouldn't need changing because the wounds weren't serious enough. I bristled a little at that because they certainly hurt a lot but then I calmed down, she had dealt with tons of students over however many years and I trusted that she knew what she was talking about. I left, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
When I got back to my room I started plotting. Now, how will I get my revenge?
000
The next day I was both excited for and dreading having Defense Against the Dark Arts with Quirrell. I had managed our first meeting just fine without showing any fear around him, but that had only been for a few minutes. I didn't know how I would hold up for a whole hour knowing that he was possessed by Voldemort himself. I steeled myself and walked through the classroom door and found myself walking right back out. My nose was burning from the smell of garlic. I can do this. I need to do this. I can't let myself develop a fear of garlic, that would just be silly, even if it does cause me real pain. For that matter, I can't let pain stop me, I need to be stronger than that. Despite my brave thoughts, I knew I was a weakling when it came to pain, I hated it and just wanted it to stop whenever I was experiencing it. However, I turned around and I went back in to the classroom. In a way, it ended up being a good thing, because I was too busy being annoyed at Quirrell to be afraid of him. I was pretty certain that he hadn't encountered both vampires and Voldemort and that the vampires were just a cover story. Either he really was scared of them, despite never having had a run in, or he was just being very thorough with his acting. Either way, I glared at him whenever he looked my way.
That night at dinner I took nine chocolate truffles from the dessert trays and put them in my pockets. Luckily they were wrapped prettily in wax paper so they wouldn't get dirty. My time over the Summer had not been idle after all, I had read a good deal of books on various spells and spent my nights practicing them in my room. I hurried from the table before everyone else had even started eating dessert and went to the dorms. I stopped in the common area and cast the same spell on all nine truffles. Now, how would I get the truffles into the correct rooms? Then I remembered the house elves. I cleared my throat and spoke to the air, "Hello? Is there a house elf here?" Complete silence. Apparently not.
000
Draco noticed the vampire leave early. He got up, when Crabbe and Goyle started to get up too he told them they could stay. He followed her at a safe distance and slipped in to the Slytherin common room as quietly as he could. He didn't recognize the spell she cast and he was even more surprised when she asked aloud if there was a house elf. He stepped forward, "What would you need with a house elf?" He asked, keeping his tone to one of polite enquiry, instead of the mocking tone he was so tempted to use.
000
I whirled around and eyed Draco with an equal mixture of surprise and wariness. Should I tell him? I really wanted to do this alone, but without the help of a house elf or a boy who had access to the boy's rooms, I wouldn't be able to get in. I supposed that Draco would be better than a house elf, because I couldn't remember if house elves were allowed to lie or not and I didn't want one of them telling on me. I took a deep breath and said, "Oh, it's simple. I want to get revenge on those who harmed me. I can deliver the truffles to Susan's room, but not to Leroy's and John's." I paused. Draco grinned, "Yeah, I can help you with that. Only, sometime in the future, if I ever need help with anything, you have to promise you'll help me." I frowned at that, I didn't like the idea of not knowing what I was promising to help with at all, but I said, "Okay." Draco paused, "What spell did you put on the truffles?" It was my turn to grin, and if my grin held a fair bit of malice I felt it was completely justified, "I merely made it so that those truffles taste like blood, and once they've tasted one bite, they'll be forced to eat all three of them." Draco looked impressed and scooped up six of the truffles to take to the boys' side of the dorm. I picked up the remaining three and put them on Susan's bed.
The next morning I went to breakfast, which I usually skipped in favor of reading, just so that I could see how those three would react. They all glared at me, but none of them approached me to say anything. I smiled and went about my day feeling very content.