Chapter Four: New Classes; New Students

Milly sped down the stairs, through the large picture of the wolves with their dark forested background, down the hall outside the portrait, skidded around a sharp corner turning into the Great Hall, and charged toward the double doors. She slowed at the doors, pushed them open, and then raced for the large wooden hut toward the Forbidden Forest. She saw students crowded around the large giant that had helped her out of the wooden boat after her sail across the lake.

She slowed as she came up to the group. The giant smiled at her, and greeted the class. "Hello. My name's 'Agrid. Nice 'at all of yer could make it back 'is year." She returned his smile, but the rest of the Slytherins sneered at him. Then she noticed Harry, gave him a little smile, then turned back to Hagrid and listened to his instructions. "Now. I 'ave a new kind o' species for yer to 'andle wi' 'is year. 'ese cute little creatures are called Lizaros. Now, Be careful with 'em. 'ey aren't very dangerous, but 'ey can get temperamental. And yer might want to wear 'ose gloves 'ere." He pointed to a pile of thick, rubber gloves and added, "'at way yer won't feel their tiny shock. Otherwise, 'eir harmless."

Hagrid smiled to his class and walked over to the back of his hut. He returned shortly with a box full of what Milly could only guess were the "cute little creatures". They had 2 rows of long gray spikes along their puke-green and brown blotched backs, and one row down their tails, of which were twice the size of their backs and wiggled around as they scuttled along over and under each other in the cardboard box. They each had a set of demon-like wings of which were tucked in as they walked. Occasionally, Hagrid had to quickly place his large hand over the box or shut one of the lids to keep one of the Lizaros from flapping itself out and away to freedom. Their eyes were dark red slits, and each one's mouth was lined with sharp milk-white teeth. They seemed to smile when you looked at them.

The class stared, and some students backed away. Milly heard Ron say to Hermione, "Do you think he asked Dumbledore if these things were allowed at the school?"

Hermione shrugged and replied, "I don't know, but they look mean. I wonder where they shock you from?"

Hagrid answered that one. "'ey shock you by clawing you-which can sting for weeks, or 'ey just poke you wi' 'eir spikes. Too bad 'ey don't shoot flames."

"'Too bad!?'" exclaimed Ron. "Thank goodness!"

Milly walked forward to look at the lizard-things. One looked up at her, and its eyes widened almost to the size of dinner plates in what seemed like fear. The creature started to squeak and hiss, moving all around in the box. It frantically unfolded its wings and tried to flap out of the box. Milly didn't move. Hagrid placed his hand over it, but to shocked him and his reflexes pulled his hand away from the box. The Lizaro managed to flap out of the box. Most of the students slowly backed away from the Lizaro. It stood on its hind legs, let out a sharp hiss, and, baring its pointed teeth, barreled straight for Milly. She turned and ran towards Hagrid's hut, trying to escape it, but, as she took the first step, it leaped onto her ankle. She felt a sharp zap, and for a split second she seemed to freeze up. When she regained movement after the shock, she kicked at the air. The Lizaro didn't have a tight hold, and that was it's mistake. It practically flew across the lawn and into some bushes near the other students. Hagrid sped over to the bushes and caught it in midair as it tried to fly away and put it back into the box.

Some of the Slytherins cheered at what she had done to Hagrid's lizard-creature, all of them thinking that she had intentionally kicked it into the bushes, but most of the class just stared at her. Milly sat down and looked at her hurting ankle. She saw a long, deep, red scratch. She guessed that it must have gotten her with it's tail spikes or its claws.

Hagrid closed the box to where none of the other Lizaros could escape and walked over to Milly. "Are you all righ', Milly? Go on down to Madame Pomfrey in the 'ospital Wing, and see what she can do abou' 'ealing yer up."

"I'm fine. Not too much damage. I can still walk. There's no need to go."

Hagrid was testy about this remark. "If yer don't go and get some treatment, 'en yer'll be feeling shocks abou' once every ten minutes. 'at could give yer some damage. Now I want year to go and go now."

"I said that I feel-" But she was cut off by a second jolt, and this one hurt twice as bad as the direct one from the Lizaro. Some of the Slytherins laughed as the jolt made her jump a few inches.

Hagrid tried to shush them up. "Now, now," he said. "'is is no laughing matter. Milly. I'll have 'arry take you to Madame Pomfrey. Go on, now. No more arguments."

There were many remarks toward Hagrid from the Slytherin boys about a Gryffindor leading their fellow Slytherin to the Hospital Wing, but Hagrid didn't say anything in remark to their disagreements. Harry walked Milly to the school doors without saying a word until they entered, and Milly no longer protested about going to the Hospital Wing. She liked Harry's company, even though it was a little awkward.

"That was weird, huh? That lizard just popped out of the box and chased you. Must have been weird for you, anyway."

"Not really. I don't have a thing for animals, aside from snakes. I love snakes."

"Are you a Parslemouth?" Harry blurted without thinking. He immediately regretted it. "Sorry… That's kind of a personal question."

Milly froze with another jolt, this one hurting three times as much as the original. When it was done, she leaned back against the wall for a moment to catch her breath, and then started walking once more. "Yes." She answered Harry's question directly while looking at the floor as she walked along.

It was a second before Milly noticed that he was looking at her. She stopped walking and turned to him. "What's the matter? Did I scare you?"

"You're almost the only other person I have ever met that is a Parslemouth, besides myself."

"No telling, okay?" She looked a little worried for a moment. "I don't want anyone to know. I just want to be left alone. I don't want to be questioned or anything like that. I'm not too interested in being the main topic to talk about around the school."

"No worries. I completely understand how you feel."

"Seriously?" She up at him and their eyes met.

"Yeah…Besides, I don't think that anyone could be more a topic of rumor them me-being Harry Potter "The Boy Who Lived" and all. Not that I like it. It's quite aggravating, actually. But I'm used to it now…I think."

Milly's breath caught. "'The boy who lived?' You mean…?" She was interrupted by another shock that nearly knocked her out. She leaned against the stone wall, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry, Harry. I'm so, so sorry."

"What are you sorry about? You didn't do anything wrong." He helped her walk down the hall. "Come on. Let's get you to Madame Pomfrey. She'll know how to cure you of the shocks."

"Okay," she replied, walking alongside him.

When they reached the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey was there waiting for them. "Oh, dear, dear. Come, come. What 's happened?" She led them to a large room filled comfortably with nice, soft beds which were for her patients.

"She got stung in Care of Magical Creatures by a Lizaro . They're Hagrid's new animals that we have to learn about. Can you help her?"

But Madame Pomfrey was already squeezing a bit of sting and poison ointment onto Milly's index finger to run on the scrape. "Your shocks will no longer be increasingly painful each shock, but they will decrease and eventually go away. Only then can you leave here. That will only be until about dinner time."

"Okay. Thank you, Madame Pomfrey."

"Harry, you may go now. Milly will be perfectly fine."

Harry left the hospital wing, and Milly lay on her bed, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

At first, she was having a rather strange dream of herself and Harry picking and eating wild berries which were growing on large weeping willow trees on the shore of the lake near Hogwarts. Then Milly had to go inside the castle for a urgent message flown to her by the largest and cruelest owl there ever was. E nipped her hand many times while she was fiddling with his leg to get the note. She had to go to her see Professor Darconnel immediately. She said goodbye to Harry and left.

When she reached the castle, the scenery in her dream changed. She was in he dark, dreary dungeons of the castle--after hours. In her hand was a small photocopy of herself, her brother, and her father and mother. She stared at the picture, taking a couple glances at her mother, remembering their fun times together. Remembering the life she had while her father was around.

Then she took a long hard look at her father. He was a tall and kind of depressing man, after he lost his job. As a matter of fact, he changed a lot after his job was lost to him. But before then, her family was as happy as a family could be. Her mother hadn't worked, and her father was around more. When he was fired, Milly started seeing less and less of him. One warm summer night he never came home. She and her mother stayed up half the night waiting for him, but he never came. The week after he left, her mother received mail from him. Her father had filed a divorce. Also, there was a note. "Sorry, Milly, if you read this. You'll end up reading this eventually, if not when your other reads it. Things weren't working out for us. I wasn't able to find a job until I came here. Now I'm a successful businessman. I wish you and your mother a happy life. Love --- T. Riddle." Her mother signed the papers, and immediately sent them out. With tears in her eyes, Milly had ran up to her room and found an owl hopping around on her bed, a note attached to its leg.

It was a month until she received a letter personally to herself from him. this letter stated that she should transfer from Beauxbatons to Hogwarts if she wished to see him once more. Her father had had some "issues" with one of the families when she was still an infant, and now their son was going to Hogwarts. He had some business to sort out with him, and he had wanted her help in doing so. She had been going to Beauxbatons for the first 4 years, and she had been kind of nervous of suddenly going to a new school, but she was mostly fine with it. She didn't like any of the kids there, anyway. Milly still wondered which boy in this large school he wanted to "do business" with, but she didn't worry too mush about it.

Milly looked up from the picture and started walking slowly down the dungeon halls. Then, breaking the silence that had steadily grown uneasy, someone from behind her let out a scream. Milly jumped with fright, but turned around and started running in the direction from where the scream had come. It was a long scream, but it stopped very suddenly. Milly slowed as she rounded a corner. There was light shining off of the large stone wall. Milly only walked to the entrance of the room, peeking around just enough to see if anyone was in there, but she recognized the room as Snape's office. He wasn't in there.

Then she heard hard footsteps down the hall a way. Being barefoot, she made no sound as she ran the opposite direction, away from the approaching person. The man was mumbling to himself, but it didn't sound at all like Snape. A moment later, she heard the door to Snape's office slam shut. Milly walked cautiously back to the office, and pressed her ear close to the door, so she could hear what the man was saying. "Yeah, Kid, you gave me a lot of trouble tonight. That scream," he grumbled, apparently talking to someone who wasn't talking back, "anyone could have heard it. You're going to get me fired, you are. And if I get fired again, I'll have our head! I nearly went crazy after the first time I was fired. I don't want it to happen again. Got it?" Milly heard a shaken mumble from inside the room. She guessed that it was the kid that he had been threatening. The man started to speak again, but more to himself than to the girl. "I can see it now, but your death and the deaths of everyone in the castle. And they'll all have thought to have happened because of some epidemic. Ha! Epidemic! But no. I'll have been the cause! That traitor, Petigrew was of little use to me. But he died just as he wanted to-a stupid little man next to my side…This will be my best kill over all of the others I have ever done!" He laughed an evil, cackling laugh. Truly the laugh of a lunatic.

A chill sped down Milly's spine. She was only a door away from a convicted murderer, with only a chipped wooden door in between them. That chipped door may be the reason that he was suddenly quiet, muttering for the crying girl to shut up or he'd hurt her. But, whatever the reason, the man walked slowly and soundlessly to the door, and swung it ajar. Milly's face went white. There, standing right in front of her, was the same man as the man in the picture she now had in her pocket. His face, however, didn't go pale. Contrarily, he smiled a toothy, evil grin. "Hello there," he said as he grabbed her arm, "My name's Voldemort. Care to join me and my little friend in here? Instead of eavesdropping outside? You're missing all the fun."

Milly shot upright in her bed. Sweat dampened her pillow and hair. It was all a dream. All a dream. But, how? It had seemed so real. It wasn't even fading from her memory like most of her other dreams usually do. Her father had been standing right in front of her. In front of her as a murderer. And she had turned into his prisoner, without him even seeming to recognizing her as his very own daughter.

Milly excused herself from the hospital wing, with many remarks to her from Madame Pomfrey, and went to her classes.