An Elemental Destiny-Chtp 6
Amara rose slowly and warily made her way to the stool where the hat rested. With a suspicious glare, she picked it up and sat down, placing it on her head.
'Well?'
'You certainly catch on quickly. It's no problem seeing where you'll be at home. It's strangely amusing you know…'
'What's amusing?'
'That the two of you are friends. You're such obvious opposites in life, and now you'll have to be opposites here as well…'
'What the Hell are you talking about?'
'Temper, temper…well, it's no trouble placing you. You're nature should be perfectly at home in…'
"SLYTHERIN!"
An excited buzz started up at the Slytherin table, while the other houses groaned silently. Amara sought out Serena's eyes and shrugged to her, as if to say ' What can you do about it?' Serena silently shook her head and smiled slightly.
"Have fun." She mouthed silently.
"You too." Amara mouthed back, pointedly looking at Darien. The other girl blushed and looked down, before turning back to her new tablemates. Amara grinned wryly and made her way to the Slytherin table. Spotting Draco, she headed towards him. One girl gave her a nasty look, but a glare was all that was necessary to make her scoot down. Amara sat down.
"Nice company you keep, Draco."
The blonde boy smirked at her comment. Two boys who were sitting near him began to edge away. It took a moment for Amara to recognize her as the ones she had sent for a tumble on the train. Draco noticed her gaze and introduced them.
"This is Crabbe and Goyle. My…friends." He paused over the last word, his voice taking on a biting quality.
"And this charming lady over here?" Amara inquired, pointing to the girl she had glared at earlier. The girl was now trying to unobtrusively poke at her with her fork. Amara gave a swift kick to the girl's ankle, causing her to yelp and drop the utensil. Draco chuckled slightly, as did a few of the other Slytherins.
"That's Pansy."
At the mention of her name, the girl stopped wriggling in pain and turned her face to Draco, a simper apparent. He turned away, and Amara noticed a look of disgust on his face. Not that she could particularly blame him.
Both girls were immersed in becoming familiar with their new situation and neither noticed the amused smirk on the face of the Potions Master.
The Next Morning
Serena yanked irritably at her hair as she slowly made her way down the hallway.
After the Sorting ceremony the night before and the following feast, she had rejoined Amara and Professor Snape, and the two girls had been escorted to their own personal chambers. Apparently, she and Amara were to room together, despite the unexpected change in situation.
Their rooms were gorgeous. They were situated in the vicinity of Snapes personal rooms, and consisted of two bedrooms, a small kitchen/dining area, a place to curl up in front of a fireplace, and a respectably sized bathroom. Amara's bedroom was done up in silvers and blues, with the blue on the walls fading up into a dark purple, which eventually became black at the ceiling and was covered in constellations that really moved. Amara had taken one look at the room, walked over to the bed, and flopped down on it with a happy sigh. Serena's were done up in rich gold's, reds and blacks, which surprisingly enough, she found she liked. Her bed, she had been amused to find, required that she practically climb into it.
While she had been thrilled with the living arrangements, she had been less than thrilled when Snape announced that he would be expecting to see them at 7 o'clock the next morning. She had had little chance to protest however, as he simply handed them each a parchment with a tiny map on it, and stormed out of the room. She had commented on his abruptness, but Amara only shrugged.
"I don't know," she had said, "I think he's hot."
That had forced a double take on Serena's part. Amara had only grinned devilishly at her and winked, before turning and going to her room.
Which was how Serena had come to be stumbling down the school halls at an (in her opinion) ungodly hour. Amara had been up and gone by the time she had woken up, and it was with plenty of curses directed at her friend, that Serena got dressed.
'She could have at least have woken me up.' Serena thought, though a nagging voice at the back of her head suggested that Amara had done just that, multiple times.
Shrugging off her thoughts, she glanced down at the bit of parchment in her hands. There she was, a tiny whitish dot. The room she was attempting to get to, glowed in a greenish color, and she could already spot two other dots in it, one blackish-gray, and one deep blue…Amara and Professor Snape no doubt. But while she could figure that much out, she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because the dot representing her was most decidedly going in the wrong direction. She paused, and then took a few steps to her right. The dot moved as well…in the wrong direction.
'Ok then…' she thought as she took a few more steps to the left. That was better. Slowly, she began to backtrack , her eyes glued to the map in front of her. Coming upon an intersection where she had previously turned right, she now turned left… 'Yes, that looked about right' she thought with a smile. Just keep going like this and…
"Hey!"
"Oof!"
Her train of thought was totally lost as she collided into another body that was coming around the same corner as she. She landed painfully on her derrière. 'Déjà vu' she thought wryly, before wondering where that thought had come from. Still, the thought stayed with her strongly and when she looked up, she was scarcely surprised at who she saw.
"Hullo Darien. Fancy running into you."
Darien, instead of answering immediately, looked at her strangely. She noticed his eyes unfocus slightly.
' Oh great, I've gone and given him brain damage.' She thought sarcastically. He snapped out of it a moment later, however, and smiled back at her before standing and helping her to her feet.
"Yeah, fancy that. What are you doing out this early?" She asked as they began to walk.
"I'm supposed to meet Amara and Professor Snape, here," she said, pointing a finger at the greenish room on the map, "however," she added, moving her finger to the little white dot, which had now been joined by a deep red dot, " this little guy is pretty much saying 'You are here.'. So I'm trying to get from point A to point B."
Darien laughed slightly at the expression of frustration on her face.
"C'mon, I'll take you there."
Serena looked at him, doubtfully.
"You're sure it's not out of your way?"
"Yeah, I'm positive. Besides, it's not everyday I get to rescue pretty damsels in distress."
Serena blushed slightly at the thinly veiled compliment, but brushed it off with a non-committal gesture.
"You wouldn't be calling me a pretty damsel if you saw me after I've been in the garden all day," she said, wryly, " I'm covered in dirt, tired, and my hair…well, lets not go there."
"Ah, but you have to remember, that even princess's sometimes have to do a little dirty work before they find their prince."
Serena looked at him and frowned. It was odd, but she could have sworn she had had this conversation before. And she was finding the constant references to royalty decidedly disturbing.
"So, you garden then?" His comment cut through the growth of troubled half thoughts that were forming in her mind.
"Huh? Uh, yeah I do. As much as I can anyways."
"What kinds of things do you grow? Flowers?"
She laughed.
"No, not really, unless the buds have a medicinal purpose. Mine is more of an herb garden, I suppose. Rosemary, Thyme, Mustard grass, Red Clover, Dandelions…"
"Dandelions? Aren't those weeds?"
"Yes and no." she said, turning the question over in her head, " I suppose someone growing a flower garden would call them weeds, since they do have a tendency to choke things out. But I use the leaves for tea, the roots are boiled and turned into a face wash, and the flowers aren't too bad in salads."
Darien nodded, processing the information.
"So you don't grow flowers at all?"
She smiled at him.
"Not unless you count my dandelions and clover. I have a bad tendency to kill flowers with kindness."
He laughed again.
"I guess you're lucky that people are a bit more resilient, hm? Here we are." He said, stopping in front of a large oak door.
She stopped as well and smiled up at him.
"Thanks for showing me the way."
He smiled back down at her before suddenly taking her hand. Ignoring her sputter of protest, he lightly kissed the back of her hand.
"My pleasure." He replied, looking up at her.
And with that, he dropped her hand and quickly strode off. Shaking her head to clear the dazed emotions, she turned and opened the door.
"About time you got here, Neko."
"Nice of you to wait for me, Amara."
"What took you so long?"
"I got lost," Serena replied, ignoring the amused snort Amara gave, " but luckily, I uh…ran into Darien…"
"I'm sure."
"And he helped me get here." She finished defensively.
"Did he now?" Professor Snape broke in, silently stepping out from the shadows of the room, "That's odd."
Amara glanced at the man, perplexed.
"What's odd?"
" Breakfast won't be served for another hour or so, and obviously classes can't begin until after that. So what was Mr. Chiba doing out and about so early? Gryfinndor or not, I doubt he patrols the halls on a constant basis, simply to rescue young and confused students. Where was he coming from when you met up with him, Miss Tsukino?"
"Um…I was here," she said, pointing out the position on her map, "and going this way, and I ran into him here…" she pointed again at another intersection, "why do you ask?"
"May I see that map, Miss Tsukino?" Serena handed it to him. He took out his wand and pointed it at the map, before muttering "Retraco". The dots on the map began to run backwards, and Amara and Serena realized he was looking over the past motions of all the people that had shown up in that wing that morning. The dark red dot moved backward from it's point of collision with the white one, taking several more twists and turns before stopping in a particular room for an extended period of time.
"What is that room?" Amara asked.
"The Library," Snape replied, " he's in the older section. The only possible reason a student would have for being back there is if there was an essay due for Advanced Magical History. I know for a fact that there was no such essay and neither is Mr. Chiba in that class. So the question remains, what was he doing there? Considering the hour, he was obviously trying not to be seen. But why?"
Snape allowed the question to hang in the air. He really had no idea why he had just shared his thoughts with these girls, something he would normally never do. They weren't ordinary students however. They weren't ordinary, period, he thought, faintly amused.
"Well," he continued, breaking the silence that was beginning to pervade the room, "now that you're both here, we can begin."
"Begin what?" Amara asked.
"Finding your limitations." He answered.
Amara rose slowly and warily made her way to the stool where the hat rested. With a suspicious glare, she picked it up and sat down, placing it on her head.
'Well?'
'You certainly catch on quickly. It's no problem seeing where you'll be at home. It's strangely amusing you know…'
'What's amusing?'
'That the two of you are friends. You're such obvious opposites in life, and now you'll have to be opposites here as well…'
'What the Hell are you talking about?'
'Temper, temper…well, it's no trouble placing you. You're nature should be perfectly at home in…'
"SLYTHERIN!"
An excited buzz started up at the Slytherin table, while the other houses groaned silently. Amara sought out Serena's eyes and shrugged to her, as if to say ' What can you do about it?' Serena silently shook her head and smiled slightly.
"Have fun." She mouthed silently.
"You too." Amara mouthed back, pointedly looking at Darien. The other girl blushed and looked down, before turning back to her new tablemates. Amara grinned wryly and made her way to the Slytherin table. Spotting Draco, she headed towards him. One girl gave her a nasty look, but a glare was all that was necessary to make her scoot down. Amara sat down.
"Nice company you keep, Draco."
The blonde boy smirked at her comment. Two boys who were sitting near him began to edge away. It took a moment for Amara to recognize her as the ones she had sent for a tumble on the train. Draco noticed her gaze and introduced them.
"This is Crabbe and Goyle. My…friends." He paused over the last word, his voice taking on a biting quality.
"And this charming lady over here?" Amara inquired, pointing to the girl she had glared at earlier. The girl was now trying to unobtrusively poke at her with her fork. Amara gave a swift kick to the girl's ankle, causing her to yelp and drop the utensil. Draco chuckled slightly, as did a few of the other Slytherins.
"That's Pansy."
At the mention of her name, the girl stopped wriggling in pain and turned her face to Draco, a simper apparent. He turned away, and Amara noticed a look of disgust on his face. Not that she could particularly blame him.
Both girls were immersed in becoming familiar with their new situation and neither noticed the amused smirk on the face of the Potions Master.
The Next Morning
Serena yanked irritably at her hair as she slowly made her way down the hallway.
After the Sorting ceremony the night before and the following feast, she had rejoined Amara and Professor Snape, and the two girls had been escorted to their own personal chambers. Apparently, she and Amara were to room together, despite the unexpected change in situation.
Their rooms were gorgeous. They were situated in the vicinity of Snapes personal rooms, and consisted of two bedrooms, a small kitchen/dining area, a place to curl up in front of a fireplace, and a respectably sized bathroom. Amara's bedroom was done up in silvers and blues, with the blue on the walls fading up into a dark purple, which eventually became black at the ceiling and was covered in constellations that really moved. Amara had taken one look at the room, walked over to the bed, and flopped down on it with a happy sigh. Serena's were done up in rich gold's, reds and blacks, which surprisingly enough, she found she liked. Her bed, she had been amused to find, required that she practically climb into it.
While she had been thrilled with the living arrangements, she had been less than thrilled when Snape announced that he would be expecting to see them at 7 o'clock the next morning. She had had little chance to protest however, as he simply handed them each a parchment with a tiny map on it, and stormed out of the room. She had commented on his abruptness, but Amara only shrugged.
"I don't know," she had said, "I think he's hot."
That had forced a double take on Serena's part. Amara had only grinned devilishly at her and winked, before turning and going to her room.
Which was how Serena had come to be stumbling down the school halls at an (in her opinion) ungodly hour. Amara had been up and gone by the time she had woken up, and it was with plenty of curses directed at her friend, that Serena got dressed.
'She could have at least have woken me up.' Serena thought, though a nagging voice at the back of her head suggested that Amara had done just that, multiple times.
Shrugging off her thoughts, she glanced down at the bit of parchment in her hands. There she was, a tiny whitish dot. The room she was attempting to get to, glowed in a greenish color, and she could already spot two other dots in it, one blackish-gray, and one deep blue…Amara and Professor Snape no doubt. But while she could figure that much out, she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because the dot representing her was most decidedly going in the wrong direction. She paused, and then took a few steps to her right. The dot moved as well…in the wrong direction.
'Ok then…' she thought as she took a few more steps to the left. That was better. Slowly, she began to backtrack , her eyes glued to the map in front of her. Coming upon an intersection where she had previously turned right, she now turned left… 'Yes, that looked about right' she thought with a smile. Just keep going like this and…
"Hey!"
"Oof!"
Her train of thought was totally lost as she collided into another body that was coming around the same corner as she. She landed painfully on her derrière. 'Déjà vu' she thought wryly, before wondering where that thought had come from. Still, the thought stayed with her strongly and when she looked up, she was scarcely surprised at who she saw.
"Hullo Darien. Fancy running into you."
Darien, instead of answering immediately, looked at her strangely. She noticed his eyes unfocus slightly.
' Oh great, I've gone and given him brain damage.' She thought sarcastically. He snapped out of it a moment later, however, and smiled back at her before standing and helping her to her feet.
"Yeah, fancy that. What are you doing out this early?" She asked as they began to walk.
"I'm supposed to meet Amara and Professor Snape, here," she said, pointing a finger at the greenish room on the map, "however," she added, moving her finger to the little white dot, which had now been joined by a deep red dot, " this little guy is pretty much saying 'You are here.'. So I'm trying to get from point A to point B."
Darien laughed slightly at the expression of frustration on her face.
"C'mon, I'll take you there."
Serena looked at him, doubtfully.
"You're sure it's not out of your way?"
"Yeah, I'm positive. Besides, it's not everyday I get to rescue pretty damsels in distress."
Serena blushed slightly at the thinly veiled compliment, but brushed it off with a non-committal gesture.
"You wouldn't be calling me a pretty damsel if you saw me after I've been in the garden all day," she said, wryly, " I'm covered in dirt, tired, and my hair…well, lets not go there."
"Ah, but you have to remember, that even princess's sometimes have to do a little dirty work before they find their prince."
Serena looked at him and frowned. It was odd, but she could have sworn she had had this conversation before. And she was finding the constant references to royalty decidedly disturbing.
"So, you garden then?" His comment cut through the growth of troubled half thoughts that were forming in her mind.
"Huh? Uh, yeah I do. As much as I can anyways."
"What kinds of things do you grow? Flowers?"
She laughed.
"No, not really, unless the buds have a medicinal purpose. Mine is more of an herb garden, I suppose. Rosemary, Thyme, Mustard grass, Red Clover, Dandelions…"
"Dandelions? Aren't those weeds?"
"Yes and no." she said, turning the question over in her head, " I suppose someone growing a flower garden would call them weeds, since they do have a tendency to choke things out. But I use the leaves for tea, the roots are boiled and turned into a face wash, and the flowers aren't too bad in salads."
Darien nodded, processing the information.
"So you don't grow flowers at all?"
She smiled at him.
"Not unless you count my dandelions and clover. I have a bad tendency to kill flowers with kindness."
He laughed again.
"I guess you're lucky that people are a bit more resilient, hm? Here we are." He said, stopping in front of a large oak door.
She stopped as well and smiled up at him.
"Thanks for showing me the way."
He smiled back down at her before suddenly taking her hand. Ignoring her sputter of protest, he lightly kissed the back of her hand.
"My pleasure." He replied, looking up at her.
And with that, he dropped her hand and quickly strode off. Shaking her head to clear the dazed emotions, she turned and opened the door.
"About time you got here, Neko."
"Nice of you to wait for me, Amara."
"What took you so long?"
"I got lost," Serena replied, ignoring the amused snort Amara gave, " but luckily, I uh…ran into Darien…"
"I'm sure."
"And he helped me get here." She finished defensively.
"Did he now?" Professor Snape broke in, silently stepping out from the shadows of the room, "That's odd."
Amara glanced at the man, perplexed.
"What's odd?"
" Breakfast won't be served for another hour or so, and obviously classes can't begin until after that. So what was Mr. Chiba doing out and about so early? Gryfinndor or not, I doubt he patrols the halls on a constant basis, simply to rescue young and confused students. Where was he coming from when you met up with him, Miss Tsukino?"
"Um…I was here," she said, pointing out the position on her map, "and going this way, and I ran into him here…" she pointed again at another intersection, "why do you ask?"
"May I see that map, Miss Tsukino?" Serena handed it to him. He took out his wand and pointed it at the map, before muttering "Retraco". The dots on the map began to run backwards, and Amara and Serena realized he was looking over the past motions of all the people that had shown up in that wing that morning. The dark red dot moved backward from it's point of collision with the white one, taking several more twists and turns before stopping in a particular room for an extended period of time.
"What is that room?" Amara asked.
"The Library," Snape replied, " he's in the older section. The only possible reason a student would have for being back there is if there was an essay due for Advanced Magical History. I know for a fact that there was no such essay and neither is Mr. Chiba in that class. So the question remains, what was he doing there? Considering the hour, he was obviously trying not to be seen. But why?"
Snape allowed the question to hang in the air. He really had no idea why he had just shared his thoughts with these girls, something he would normally never do. They weren't ordinary students however. They weren't ordinary, period, he thought, faintly amused.
"Well," he continued, breaking the silence that was beginning to pervade the room, "now that you're both here, we can begin."
"Begin what?" Amara asked.
"Finding your limitations." He answered.