My Blood's True Color

Chapter Two ~ #@$&%*

* "Come out, come out, little Harry!" she called in her mock-baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"
"I am!" shouted Harry, and a score of ghostly Harry's seemed to chorus I am! I am! I am! all around the room.
"Aaaaaah . . . did you love him, little baby Potter?"
Such hatred rose in Harry such as he'd never known before. He flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed "Crucio!"
Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had- she was already on her feet again, breathless, but no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again- her counterspell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.
"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. "You need to mean them Potter! You need to really want to cause pain- to enjoy it- righteous anger won't hurt me for long- I'll show you how it's done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson-" *

"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BE-" Hermione groaned. 'Damn alarm clock' she thought. Though in truth, she was almost glad, she didn't want to see the Cruciatus Curse used again. 'Wait a minute..' Hermione remembered that Harry used the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange. "He could be put in Azkaban for LIFE if anyone found out!" "If anyone found out what dear?" Hermione jumped. "MOM!!! DON'T DO THAT!!!" Hermione's mother stepped away from the door. "I'm sorry! Anyway, please come down and eat something, you look rather pale." "Okay Mom, I'll be down in a few minutes." Hermione replied, and closed her door.
Looking down at her wrist to check the time, she realized that she'd forgotten to heal herself. Sighing, Hermione was silently grateful that her mother had interrupted her, otherwise, she would have noticed her wrist at breakfast, and would just further arouse her parent's suspicions. Hermione healed herself quickly and changed haphazardly into a black shirt and jeans. She quickly brushed her hair so she wouldn't have to put up with remarks about how messy she was, and tied it back to get it out of her way. Hermione walked out of the room, carefully closing the door behind her, and headed downstairs without looking in her mirror. She didn't really feel the need to see how awful she looked, and would only so that if anyone complained.
As she walked down the stairs, Hermione didn't notice a magazine that her mother had dropped on the way down. Thus she slipped, and finished her trek by gracefully falling down the last six steps and landing flat on her face. Brought out of that oblivion she now preferred to be in, she swore loudly, and her mother, in the kitchen a few feet away, got an English lesson.
"HERMIONE GRANGER!!!" Her she scolded, "YOU ARE LUCKY YOUR FATHER ALREADY LEFT FOR WORK!!!" Hermione sighed, "Yes Mom, sorry." Instead of making her angry, like it would to most people, this just depressed her. Though bringing her back to the real world annoyed her for a second, the feeling that she couldn't do anything right took over.
After dropping the bowl, which luckily didn't break, stabbing herself with a spoon (A.N. it's possible, and it hurts!), having to use the bad cereal, and spilling the milk, Hermione decided that today was not a good day to be practicing her spells or doing any other homework. So she told her mom that she wasn't feeling well to get rid of the nagging, crawled back into her bed, and fell asleep. (A.N. when you're depressed, you can sleep a lot.)