If you can get a chance, go and visit 'stars_planets_clocks' bio. There's a link there for the '404 Ways to Annoy Prof. Snape.' Well worth seeing. The site, 'whysnape' has lots of great links for anyone who likes Mr. 'I hate children, that's why I'm a teacher'. Hee hee.
"I won't look prettier if I smile for the picture.
Motherfuckers never liked me thenAnd they sure won't like me now.
Don't try to drag me down with your cliché
Your fake smile fits your faker face
But I find all my pleasure in your misery."
'Better of Two Evils' Marilyn Manson
Slurping his soggy cornflakes out of the bottom of his cereal bowl, Alexander rubbed Sirius' belly with his foot, while Daniel sipped some coffee and flicked through the Curse book. Shuffling distractedly through a heap of letters, Severus picked a particularly bulky one up and threw it at Alexander, who squealed with excitement and ripped it open.
Reading it quickly, his ruffled hair seemed to jump up along with his eyebrows.
"What is it?" asked Severus, not looking up from the letter he was reading.
"Nothing." Alexander answered innocently, shoving it into Daniel's pocket. Glaring at him, Snape stood up and handed a letter to Daniel, who left it lying beside her.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"Half eight." Answered Alexander, consulting the watch currently fastened around his ankle.
"Better go then." She said decidedly, standing up and stretching.
"Go where?" asked Snape. "The task isn't until 8 this evening."
"I'm going to practice." She answered.
Walking along the cool, dimly light corridor, she emerged into the harsh light of the Entrance Hall, and spotted Harry coming out from breakfast.
"We still going to practice?" he asked, glancing around him for Ron and Hermione.
"Yeah." She answered briefly, watching Draco Malfoy wander out of the Hall with Crabbe and Goyle. He glanced over at her, and a faint smile lifted his face.
"Daniel?" asked Hermione sharply, vying for her attention.
"What?" she replied, still watching Draco's back as it disappeared down into the subterranean corridors.
"Are we going to practice?" she continued bossily, leading Harry, Ron and Daniel along a series of heavily portraited corridors. Opening a door, Hermione gestured for them to enter.
Stepping inside, they found it to be a huge classroom, walls covered floor to ceiling in thick cobwebs. Ron immediately tried to get out of the room, but Daniel flicked her wand and the cobwebs were gone. Looking happier, Ron sat down on a desk, and watched Harry pick out another curse to use on Daniel. Finding one, he asked Daniel nervously if she was all right, and Hermione simply observed with an interested look on her face, ready to perform the counter-curse. Harry planted his feet firmly on the ground.
"Epidermon!" he shouted, and pink light shot out of his wand and hit Daniel in the face. Her hands clamped onto her eyes. Stumbling, she fell backwards onto the floor with a bump.
"I can't see!" she shrieked, getting up. Hermione gasped. It was as though she had never had eyes. Skin had grown over her eye sockets, leaving only smooth, slightly dented skin. Muttering the counter-curse, Hermione looked worriedly at Daniel, who was blinking furiously and rubbing her eyes. Opening them properly, Harry could see they were slightly bloodshot, but otherwise, all right.
"Remember that one." Daniel said, looking at the two Harrys currently in bad focus in front of her.
That night at dinner, the Hall was buzzing with excited conversation. Draco had taken residence opposite Daniel at the Slytherin table. He was poking the food on the plate in front of him.
"You'd better eat something." She said, looking up at him.
He opened his mouth to reply, but Professor Dumbledore had stood up.
"Could the champions make their way down to the Quidditch Pitch." He said, smiling at the excited faces. "The rest of the school will follow in fifteen minutes." Standing up, Daniel was vaguely aware of Draco saying good luck, but she ignored him and walked along the table. She was first out the door.
The warm summer air smelt like the forest, and the quickly falling dusk was tinted with scarlet and mauve. Footsteps behind her sounded lightly on the springy grass. The lake glittered enticingly at her as she entered the Quidditch stadium. The hedges looked black in the half-light. Suddenly, there was a crack, and about twenty huge lights flooded the area with light. She watched as the other champions arrived, quickly followed by the school. The teachers had front row seats. Not that there was anything other than hedges to watch. The moment before Bagman stared talking and the moment after he said to begin passed in a flurry of colours and noises, and before she knew it, she was walking towards the maze to the tumultuous applause of the Slytherin crowd, and polite acknowledgement from the remainder of the audience.
The hedges cut off all noise. Eerily silent, she heard the crowd erupt into applause several more times, before everything was silent, except for the soft padding of her footsteps and the rustling of leaves. Wandering aimlessly through the hedges, peering around corners before she walked on, pausing every now and then to check if there were any noises that came from things not wanting to be heard. She stopped suddenly. A feeling of complete bliss came over her. Her mind went wonderfully blank, and suddenly, nothing mattered. Standing there, humming with happiness, she was barely aware of Fleur walking timorously towards her.
"Daniel?" she asked, looking at her face and then the wand still clasped in her hand. "Are you alright?" the tone of her voice softened slightly, and she walked right up to Daniel, who wondered at the warmth radiating off her. Inexplicably, Daniel shook her head and she felt tears stinging her eyes. Fleur pulled her into a hug. Her mouth was millimeters away from Fleur's neck. She could sense the blood pulsing beneath the white skin. She shivered. Fleur muttered sympathies and pulled her tighter still. Wrapping her arms around Fleur in return, Daniel felt like she was embraced by an electric blanket. The sheer heat coming off this girl was enough to send her over the edge. The smell of the blood mere millimeters away from her, the throb of a heartbeat. 'Kill her'. Said a voice from inside her head. Daniel obliged. Fleur screamed, the high-pitched sound sliced through the soft darkness. Daniel drank. Slowly, Fleur sagged to the ground. The feeling that had descended over her so quickly evaporated in an instant. Staring at Fleur's body, not really knowing why she was lying there, realization dawned on Daniel, and she stared at the limp, lifeless form of the rival champion. Standing stock-still, listening in vain for any sounds that would indicate another wizard in her vicinity.
"Accio invisibility cloak!" she roared, pointing her wand in various directions. Nothing. Someone had put the Imperius curse on her. Someone who wasn't there. Shaking her head frustratedly, she stepped over Fleur's body and walked on.
She hadn't come across any obstacles yet. No creatures, or anything else. Wandering between the hedges, trying to keep in the middle, to minimize the chance of something swiping at her through the hedge. Turning a corner, she was met with a sphinx. Raising her eyebrows, Daniel walked slowly forward.
"Hello." Said the sphinx in a deep, even voice. Her lion's tail flicked at a moth, and her amber eyes studied Daniel's face, which was currently half-hidden in a shadow cast from a hedge. "You should have died a long time ago." The sphinx stood up and paced around her. "Now you live in limbo, neither living nor dead, a parasite, feeding wherever you can, with no thought for the consequences, feared and reviled by society, marginalized by everyone who knows the truth about your dubious existence. A ball of evil disguised in a shell of a lesser being." Forcing herself to calm down, Daniel swallowed with difficulty, and stared back at the sphinx, hand clasped tightly around her wand.
"Do you have a riddle for me?" Daniel asked, in a voice dangerously quiet.
"Someone has already passed by here. I can only allow one person past me to the center." The sphinx blinked slowly, tail flicking.
"As you were kind enough to point out," Daniel sneered, with a slight inclination of her head, "I am a ball of evil, not a person." The sphinx looked at her benignly, before shifting over to the left side of the path ahead. "Thank you." Daniel said, walking ahead, and the sphinx coughed slightly. Feigning sympathy, Daniel turned to face the sphinx again. "Hairball?"
Leaping to her feet, the sphinx snarled menacingly and swiped a four-taloned paw across Daniel's chest. Crying out in shock, Daniel fell backwards onto a hedge, clutching her ribs. Advancing slowly, the sphinx growled horribly, and stood on the wand that had fallen out of her hand. Thinking quickly, Daniel kicked the sphinx sharply under the chin, making it howl in agony, before turning on her again.
"Blitzen!" shouted a voice, and the sphinx was thrown backwards into a hedge, and lay motionless on the ground, smoking slightly. Harry ran towards Daniel, glancing quickly at the deep lesions on her chest. "Lie still." He said softly. "Ferula." He muttered, and her chest was immediately bound tightly in bandages.
"Where'd you learn that?" she asked slowly, letting him help her up.
"I saw Professor Lupin do it once." He answered, supporting her with his left arm, holding his wand out in front of him.
"Has Krum gone on ahead?" he asked, looking around a corner.
"I think so." She said, wincing as Harry shifted his arm and bumped against the bandages. Going on for a bit without talking, they heard a scream of pain from somewhere in front of them. Quickening his speed, Harry half-dragged her along and they soon came to a clearing. Krum was lying on the ground, one of his legs practically ribbons of bloody flesh, a Blast Ended Skrewt standing menacingly over him, eating bits of Bulgarian. Throwing Daniel to one side, Harry shot spells at it, as it made clicking noises with its mandibles, scuttling forwards on its armored legs.
"Stupefy!" he roared, pointing the spell at the soft underbelly of the Skrewt. It made a screechy sound, and fell to the ground, one of its legs twitching.
Picking Daniel up again, Harry walked her forward towards the podium in the center of the grassy clearing, where the Tournament Cup caught the dim light and reflected it onto the hedges. "Together?" he said, smiling at her. Nodding, Daniel hovered one of her hands over the handle of the cup. Harry did the same. They grasped the cup at the exact same moment. Grinning at each other, their smiles had barely faded when the world around them dissolved, and they traveled through swirling lights and colors, to destinations unknown.
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