DISCLAIMER: you know, I am wondering what will happen if one day someone said in their disclaimer, "Yes, I do own Harry Potter, deal with it." *casts beady eye around for lawyers* All right, I can see J.K's lawyers from way over here in another continent. No, I don't own Harry Potter, deal with it.
I have plans for this story… ones that include Slytherins, what Slytherin is truly all about, our favourite Potions Master (who I really wish I did own) and an age old mystery of magic. We have here a girl from Australia, one who is coming to Hogwarts and who is not a Mary Sue… you should see the state of her homework. She is a decent character but she has flaws, which could result in the downfall and destruction of herself… she cannot open the Pandora's Box. The Box must be kept sacred, but somehow it ends up in her hands… with only Severus Snape to guide her, she has herself a difficult mission ahead…
SERPENT CARVINGS – chapter one
By elvenquill
You never want to open a Pandora's Box
And unleash the troubles within
A world once full of laughter and joy
Now plagued with sin
Leave the box, PandoraLeave it alone, in it's corner…
"We're going where?"
Greg Fey looked down into the scowling face of his daughter, Pandora, and sighed inwardly. Telling a teenager they had to uproot themselves and move had always been and would always be an uphill battle. He reached forward to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, but she swatted away his affection, choosing to glare at him instead.
"To England," he said, preparing himself for an onslaught.
"ENGLAND? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLOODY MIND?" she yelled. "I am NOT moving, and I don't care what you have to say about it! As far as I am concerned, the Australian Ministry of Magic can keep you in Australia – who the hell do they think they are, trying to take you away – and forcing us to go with you?"
At this, Pandora did an about face, and ran out the kitchen door. Greg grabbed the fridge with both hands in an attempt to calm down, and release his frustration upon the white appliance. Briefly, he also considered whacking his head against it, but soon decided that it would do nothing – except perhaps give him a bigger headache than what he already could feel throbbing in his temples.
"Pandora…" he groaned, running out the kitchen door himself, and looking around the backyard for her. "Now where in blazes did that girl go?"
"I'm not going!" came a defiant voice from above him.
Squinting in the sun, Greg used his hand to shield his eyes and raised his head to look on the roof. "Oh, bugger," he muttered. Gathering a deep breath, he shouted to his daughter, trying his hardest to sound authoritative. "Pandora, you get down from that roof, right now!"
Pandora just scowled. "No!"
"That's it, young lady! You are coming in this house so we can talk, right now!" he snapped, finally losing his patience, and whipping out his wand with such speed even Pandora blinked somewhat. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
"Eep…" Pandora squeaked, as she floated back down to the backyard of their Australian home. When she was firmly on the ground, her father looked hard at her.
"Are you ready to go inside and talk about this like an adult?" he asked in a measured tone.
Pandora had a somewhat sulky look on her face, but she knew when she was beaten. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and bent her head. "Sorry," she muttered. She raised her head, and green eyes met the brown ones of her father's. "I just don't want to go," she whispered.
Greg sighed, and opened his arms. Pandora willingly accepted this truce, and they embraced each other, Greg bending his head to smell the scent of his daughter's freshly washed hair. "I'm sorry," he said to her softly. "But what some people want, some people get… no matter how it affects others," he admitted to her. Greg drew back his arms and held Pandora at arms length.
The sight of a somewhat stubborn teenager met his eyes, one dressed casually in Muggle clothes. No matter how much he berated her, or tried to drop hints about that 'wonderful new robes shop that had just opened', Pandora refused to walk around Sydney in long, flowing robes. Muggles weren't all bad; Greg had to admit to himself. He quite liked the beer and barbeque tradition that Australians had taken on hand, and had been invited to quite a few to himself, mostly invites from the parents of Pandora's friends.
Pandora sighed, bringing Greg back from his thoughts. "Can we go inside?" she asked pointedly. "I can't help thinking that any minute now people will come out from the neighbouring houses and start screaming, 'Incest! Incest!' at us."
He ruffled her hair, laughing as she escaped inside. "What, you ashamed to be seen hugging your old man?" he cried out after her teasingly.
"In public, yes," came the flippant reply. "I will hug you if you submit a request to be hugged several weeks in advance, with all details on a sheet of paper. Preferably perfumed."
Greg rolled his eyes. "I cannot wait to get you off to your new school! I might not even let you come home from the holidays – I'll make the teachers at Hogwarts keep you chained in the dungeon."
"Hogwarts?" Pandora's head peered around a doorframe. "Is that my new school?" She disappeared again, and mumbled under her breath.
"Hey, you know you're not supposed to be doing magic out of school – Kangara will not like it," Greg reprimanded. "And yes, Hogwarts is your new school's name. Apparently it's quite a large castle," he added thoughtfully. "Plenty of room to escape and practice your magic."
"Don't be stupid Dad – I'm not practicing out of school hours," Pandora said incredulously, as though the mere suggestion itself was a joke. "And anyway, Kangara won't care if I do magic, they're used to it by now."
This, Greg had to admit, was true. Kangara was quite lenient in it's out of school magic use restrictions, for not many Australians were witches and wizards. But Pandora used magic so often out of school that she had been hauled up in front of the Australian Ministry of Magic more times than she could count for defying the decree, and had often relied on some fast talking from herself and her Dad to keep her out of trouble.
"Well, apparently Hogwarts does," Greg amended. He ran a hand through his sandy blonde, slightly greying hair and walked into the living room where Pandora was busy levitating ornaments into a cardboard box. "Pandora…" he began.
She blinked, and looked up at him. "Yes?" she smiled, concentrating on moving a rather ugly green vase from the sturdy wooden shelf that ran its way around the walls. She looked at it, and gave her wand a slight flick. Anyone watching would have thought she had done it by accident, but Greg knew her daughter all too well for that.
"Oops," she said cheerfully. "Well, never mind, I never liked it anyway."
"Clean up those shards, right away," Greg ordered. "You had no right to break that vase… oh, I know you, that was no accident. That was a gift from Janet!" he accused.
"That's exactly why I don't like it," she murmured, but Greg chose to ignore her remark.
"What are you doing, anyway?"
Pandora looked at him, confused. "Packing," she said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" he said, grabbing her wand from her. "Calm down. We aren't leaving until the end of August."
Pandora blew a strand of blonde hair out of her face. "But that means I'll appear in the middle of the school year!"
"They have different times over there," he explained. "Their year begins in September."
"Well, that's stupid."
"I know… Pans… come on, give me a smile. I know it's hard, but it can't be helped, and you'll just have to make do until we can move back. Now, stop that… get that sulky look off your face! You are sixteen years old, and it is time you stopped acting like a child," he said to her gently. "Now, weren't you supposed to be meeting Karen at the shops?"
Pandora's eyes grew wide. "Oh, bugger!" she exclaimed.
Greg sighed, and pulled out a ten dollar note from his pocket.
"Thanks Dad," Pandora said hurriedly, grabbing the note and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back before dinner!"
Then she was gone, disappearing out the door in a flash of worn jeans and hair scraped back into a messy ponytail. Greg stood still for a moment, reflecting, but then pulled out his wand to put the ornaments back in their places. "Packing indeed," he muttered. "She's been waiting to break that vase for ages."
*
Pandora bit her lip and stared out the small window of the plane that was taking her and her Dad to England – where she would be enrolled in Hogwarts. The window grew slightly misty, and she rubbed it with her sleeve, until she realised that it wasn't the window that was misting over, but her eyes. She wiped them, refusing to cry.
Her friends had appeared at her house with presents – some magical, some purely for humorous entertainment. She grinned as she remembered a gift from her friend, Olivia – a wind up toy that had shocked her Dad and caused her to laugh so hard she fell onto the cough and then again, promptly rolled off it, somehow squashing a plate of chips. All her closest friends were from Kangara, though she had Muggle friends that she had also said goodbye to. Karen and Olivia, her two best friends, a dark haired imp and a plump redhead with a huge smile, had promised to write all the time. She told them that they would be seeing Bandi plenty, knocking at their windows.
"Would you like the chicken or pasta?" the air stewardess asked her, with a cheerful smile, wearing the usual QANTAS outfit, and several centimeters of foundation.
Pandora leaned forward and turned on her smile as she looked past her Dad, who was sitting next to her. "Do you have anything that doesn't taste like plastic?" she asked.
"Nope."
"Oh," Pandora replied, somewhat deflated. "I'll have the pasta then."
Greg rolled his eyes, and elbowed his daughter. She grinned, until she remembered she was supposed to be mad at her Dad, and turned back towards the window.
"Oh, come on, Pandora," he said. "You're going to have to get used to it sometime."
"Oh," she said, feigning surprise. "Just like Janet will?"
She was pleased at the slight blush that the comment arose, but he refused to rise to the bait. "Janet and I broke up, and I am sure she will get used to it. I told her that the distance was too great."
"I'm pretty sure she didn't get the message, judging from all the letters she sent… Oh, Greg, take me back, the distance isn't too great for true love… you great big hunk of spunk, you…" she smirked to herself.
"They did not say that – you read them?" Greg asked.
"Only a few. They got boring after awhile," she commented, playing with the buttons on her chair.
"You are so spoiled," Greg said to her after a slight pause. "I really shouldn't give you the present I was planning on giving to you," he told her, frowning, though Pandora could plainly see the mischief in his eyes.
"You were going to give me something?" she asked hopefully.
"Now, now Pandora!" Greg teased. "So materialistic!" But no matter how hard she begged, he refused to say anything of what he would be presenting to her later.
*
"Alright, Pandora, you ready?" Greg called up the stairs. A slightly tousled head appeared from upstairs.
"Just a minute!" she called, withdrawing her head.
"Pandora, stop hanging upside down from the staircase!" Greg yelled out to his daughter. "And hurry up! We have to get to Diagon Alley soon, or otherwise we'll be there all day looking for your school things!"
Pandora thumped down the stairs, dressed immaculately in black jeans, dark blue button up shirt and her usual silver jewellery. "Ready," she sang out, giving an impish grin to her father.
He shook his head in amazement. "Why is it, no matter the time frame, you always come out looking perfectly groomed? It's disgusting, that's what that is… people shouldn't be so neat!"
Pandora gave her dad a strange look. "Oh, coming from he who won't stop staring in the mirror for hours before dates, trying to convince himself he comes from Muscle Land?"
"Muscle Land?" He asked, feigning offence. "Yeah, well… that's not even a real land!"
"Are we going now, or not? Oh, and can we Apparate?" she asked, ignoring his dismal response to her provoking.
"What are you talking about? You can't Apparate," he frowned.
She shrugged at him. "Well, yeah… but you can hold onto me, can't you?"
Greg rolled his eyes. "Fine… always manages to get her own way…" he mumbled under his breath as he held out an arm for Pandora to hold. "Wait," he said. "You should probably put a robe or a cloak on over that."
Pandora considered this, and disappeared upstairs, until a moment later she reappeared, with a dark cloak over her. "Can we go now?" she asked.
He held out his arm once more to her, and she took it, closing her eyes and waited for that tingly feeling that meant they were apparating – a bit like pins and needles, that began in her toes and spread throughout her body until she opened her eyes… and was in Diagon Alley.
"Wow…" she said, her eyes taking every detail around her. Everywhere she looked there were people, a huge throng of people of all shapes and colours, wearing robes of all shades and holding items of everything from potted plants that hissed and bit to magical ice creams that changed colours as you licked them.
"There's so many people…" she said, mesmerised. Her father, however, wasn't listening to her, but instead had met someone he apparently knew, judging from his reaction.
"Arthur!" Greg said, grinning from ear to ear as he shook the man's hand.
"Ah, yes, Greg, wasn't it? I believe we've met at the Ministry! You're working at the – "
"Shh," Greg said suddenly, looking around him. "Not here."
Arthur seemed to understand this, though Pandora was slightly confused.
"Ah, yes, of course," Arthur reaffirmed amiably.
"Dad!" came a voice, and a lanky red head came up to him. "Can I borrow a few Sickles? Sorry, but Fred and George took them out of my pockets with a Transferring Spell, even though they won't admit it." The boy, who looked to be around Pandora's age, noticed the people that his father was with, and Arthur introduced them all.
"Ron, this is a colleague of mine, Greg, and his daughter, Pandora. She'll be starting at Hogwarts this year, won't you?"
"Yes," Pandora said, with a forced smile. "I will."
"Well, nice to meet you both then," Ron said, offering his hand to her father, who took it and shook it enthusiastically.
"Nice to meet you too," he said to Ron, smiling. Her father was obviously excited to be here, and eager to meet new people… a trait that Pandora had not inherited, much to the exasperation of her father.
Pandora sighed, and shifted her weight on her feet. She caught sight of a shop on her right, and tugged on her father's sleeve, before Ron could offer his hand to her.
"Dad!" she hissed. "I'm going in there, ok?"
Greg looked around, and caught site of a shop proclaiming it to be The Apothecary. "Sure," he said agreeably. "I'll meet you in there in a few minutes?"
"Uh huh, sure," Pandora said, making a quick exit and not looking back. She ducked and weaved her way across the cobblestone pavement, and pushed open the door of the shop, causing a light bell to ring. It was a cool place, with dark wooden walls and glass jars lining every inch of the place. There were beetle eyes (5 Knuts a scoop) and newt toes (6 Knuts a scoop). There was dragon liver (12 Galleons per pound) and ground fireflies wings, a light, shimmery powder (at 5 Galleons per spoonful). She was inspecting what the sign claimed to be Mud Fairy Wings, when she heard a voice.
"Well," came a clear voice behind her. "I don't believe I've seen you here before."
*
Next Chapter – The train ride, and maybe even the Sorting if I feel like it – and if you are all good people and review. Come on, it is the only bright spot in my otherwise meaningless life… it is what we fanfic authors survive on – so click that little blue button down there… no there! Yes, that's it, and review.
If you don't review, then I am bringing out my friend, the evil cheese Barnaby, and no one wants to mess with him. Trust me… you should have seen the last person who tried to put him on a cracker…