HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH
By Lady Lestrange
Ow Post
Chapter 33
10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.
--LADY LESTRANGE
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(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times. --Lady Lestrange)
UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.
The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.
Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.
Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.
We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years.
Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend.
The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know.
Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?)
LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor.
AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:
Ow Post
Chapter 33
When Samara arrived at the owlry on Saturday morning, she was surprised to find Draco, Vincent and Greg there. Draco was holding a small struggling owl in his hand.
"Don't you ever lose those two?" teased Samara as she looked around for Aggie. Usually, the owl flew to her and began pestering for treats as soon as Samara entered the owlry.
"Occasionally," said Draco releasing the owl. He turned to his companions. "I'll see you at breakfast," he said and they immediately left, leaving Draco alone with Samara.
He came to her and laid his hand on her shoulder.
"I can't find her," said Samara anxiously.
"Who?"
"Aggie. My owl."
"You can use mine," said Draco. With a sharp whistle, he brought a dark eagle owl to his shoulder.
"No. No. You don't understand," said Samara frantically. I have to find Aggie. I brought her owl treats. I bring them every morning. Something's happened to her."
"Probably someone mistook her for a school owl and sent a letter with her," said Draco.
"No," said Samara. "She won't come to just anyone. She's –not the friendliest creature. I think she was abused. She's very sensitive."
Samara sniffed and wiped her eyes awkwardly. "If somebody hurt her, to spite me—"
"Why would anyone do that?" asked Draco, frowning at Samara's uncharacteristic emotionalism.
"Because they all hate me," said Samara as the tears stared to flow. And she was my only friend."
"Well, thanks," said Draco sarcastically.
"I didn't mean you weren't my friend, but—you're different." Samara walked into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder,
"Than an owl? I would hope so," said Draco his voice filled with barely concealed disgust. After a moment, he awkwardly patted Samara's shoulder. He paused, holding her for a moment and then tried to detach her from his shoulder. "Samara. You're making my robe wet."
"Oh. Sorry." She lifted her face to his and sniffed as she pulled her wand out of her hair. "I think I know a drying spell," she said raising her wand.
"Don't—" began Draco.
"Pergo!" she said.
Draco smoothed his robe and looked at Samara. I can't believe you are carrying on like this for an owl. Has she been with your family long?"
"No. I just got her."
Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure she's fine. She'll probably be back in the owlry later today. You'll see."
"I hope so."
"Let's go. It stinks up here. I guess Filch has trouble climbing up here to clean it. I'll have to remember to suggest it to him for someone's detention." Draco paused. "Well, do something about your red eyes and let's go down to breakfast, shall we?" he said.
"My eyes?" questioned Samara
"Yes," said Draco. "If I walk into the Great Hall with you teary-eyed, I'll probably attract curses from half the Gryffindors."
"You've never struck me as the kind to worry about curses," said Samara.
"Oh, I'm not worried for my account," said Draco. "But after I retaliate, the Griffindors will probably blame the whole thing on you."
That brought a weak smile to Samara's face. The moment dragged into an awkward silence, as Draco stood watching her expectantly. "Well," he said.
"Draco," said Samara softly. "I haven't the foggiest idea how to do a glamour charm."
Draco looked at her in shock. "I thought all girls learned that at age eleven whether they needed it or not—"
"Not this girl," said Samara. "At age eleven I was busy with--other things."
"I'll bet," replied Draco with a wry smile.
"Come to think of it, the only appearance spell I know is papulae."
Draco laughed, "And who was the unfortunate recipient of that spell?"
"Katelyn McCormick."
"What did she do to deserve that?" Draco raised his wand. "pulchra colos" he said, clearing her red puffy eyes and blotchy skin.
"Oh she was just a nosy gossip monger. It wasn't bad enough she spread rumors about me, but when she started on my brother—"
"You have a brother?" asked Draco, surprised.
"Three of them—" Samara stopped horrified at what she had said. Her hand flew to her mouth. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She mentally berated herself. Now he was going to ask about her brothers and what could she say? Whatever she said, she was doomed. She would have to tell him she was muggle born. She couldn't see any way out of the predicament. She looked at the owlry floor and the spattered decorations of bird droppings and feathers and scraps and owl treats—What a mess! She felt tears threatening again.
"Samara?" Draco put his hand under her chin and raised her face to his. "And they aren't at Hogwarts?"
Samara shook her head, still trying to look at the floor.
"Because. . . "He said gently, still cupping her chin and trying to get her to look at him.
Samara finally raised her eyes to his face. His aura was doing something very strange. It was deepening, from it's normal blues and reds to violet and yet, the red overlay, that she thought signified some sort of previous pain, was very, very bright.
"I shouldn't have spoken of them," she said.
"But you did."
She looked into Draco's soft gray eyes and willed herself to lie, to say they were too young, but she couldn't do it. There was such understanding in his aura, that although the red overlay was still there, his actual aura was now blended--almost violet. She could feel his magic around her supporting her, and although she didn't understand it, she couldn't lie. "Because," she whispered in a voice so soft it was barely audible above the cooing of the owls. "Because…They…they…"
"Weren't magical?" finished Draco, an uncharacteristic grayish color invading his aura.
Miserably, Samara nodded. She had tensed waiting for his reaction. She remembered Ginny saying: "He'll drop you so fast—" But he didn't. He enfolded her in his arms and just held her.
They were still standing in their embrace when Lauren and Pansy came up the stairs. They were joking and levitating a large box, but their laughter came to an abrupt halt when they saw Draco and Samara.
"What's so funny?" asked Samara pulling out of Draco's embrace.
"Nothing," said Lauren.
"Come on," said Samara eyeing their auras. "You're up to something."
"Well, we'll tell you at breakfast," said Pansy. "Right now, we have to hurry to send these before breakfast."
Pansy opened the box, which contained numerous parcels.
"We'll help you," volunteered Samara. "You're never going to get all those done."
Draco hesitated a moment and then smiled. "Why not?" he said as he started tying a parcel on an owl's leg.
"What's all this for?" asked Samara as she began tying.
"McGonagall," answered Lauren unhesitatingly.
"We had detention," added Pansy.
"For what?" asked Samara.
"It's a long story," said Pansy.
"We have a lot of packages," said Samara.
Lauren shrugged as she released an owl. "We were transfiguring pets yesterday. You can imagine what kind of pets most Slytherins have."
"Snakes," Samara surmised.
"Right," said Pansy, "But Mcgonagall said, 'No dangerous pets.' What she classsifies as dangerous and what some Slytherins classify as dangerous are two different things. She warned us not to transform any of the snakes into a venomous variety and actually no one did—"
"Well then why would you get a detention?" asked Samara.
"Wait. Start at the beginning," said Draco "Ethan was trying to accio his pet, but he couldn't get it, so McGonagall gave him a rat, after she gave him a lecture and took off twenty house points for not being prepared. Having a rat among all those snakes was just a recipe for disaster."
"I wouldn't have been a problem if the snakes had all been fed," said Pansy.
"Anyway," continued Lauren, "Vincent Crabbe didn't transform his snake into a venomous snake, it is a venomous snake. It's a coral snake. He actually did a pretty nice job with transforming it into a Gardner snake. It looked great, he just forgot to remove the venom. McGonagall was showing the class what a good job he did, when it decided to bite her. She immediately used a charm to slow her blood flow so she really wasn't in any immediate danger, but then she started checking snakes.
How many were venomous?" asked Samara.
"Eight," said Lauren, but that wasn't the worst part. In the confusion, something ate the rat."
"No it didn't," said Pansy. "It just ran away."
"Anyway," Ethan couldn't find his rat, so Millie decided to help him out. She turned into a cat, and said to use her."
"What!" cried Samara.
"Oh, you didn't know Millicent is an animagus—a black cat," said Draco. "She wasn't even taught by McGonagall. She knew it when she came to school, first year. I don't know if McGonagall even knows for sure."
"She should," said Lauren. "She's an animagus. She should recognize another one, especially a cat."
"But, Millicent said for Ethan to use her?" protested Samara as she tied yet another package on an owl's leg, " She must have a lot of faith in Ethan's transfiguration skills. Plus, wouldn't McGonagall know that she gave Ethan a rat?"
"Well I don't think Millicent was going to trust in Ethan's transfiguration skills. I think she was going to transfigure herself." Said Lauren. "She's really good at transfiguration. McGonagall's always giving her different work. It's the only subject she's good at and McGonagall always gives her stuff that's twice as hard as what the rest of us do. She's even in advanced Transfig—" Pansy shuddered. "As far as McGonagall knowing, Ethan could just say he finally got the pet he was trying to accio."
Samara nodded.
"The problem was, Millicent was lying really still and quiet throughout all of the chaos and at some point, she got bit." Said Lauren. "Ethan realized it, but didn't want to jeopardize his stupid grade by telling McGonagall what had happened. I told him what I thought of him!"
"And McGonagall heard," interjected Draco.
Samara sucked in her breath. "But Millicent could have died!"
"Exactly," said Pansy.
"So you told on him?"
"No, of course not," said Pansy. "I cursed him."
"Pansy! With what curse?"
"The curse of the Bogeys," said Lauren. "All the terrors of hell."
"Terricula!" said Pansy. "Ethan screamed so loud that Flitwick came over to see if McGonagall needed help."
Draco chuckled. "Actually, I'm not sure, but I think Ethan and Potter have something in common—their fear of dementers."
"Of course Ethan's terror upset all of the animals—"said Pansy.
"Was Millicent alright?" asked Samara.
"Oh yeah," said Lauren, "But Madam Pomfrey said if Millicent wanted to live in the Infirmary, she would see about moving her bed there." Lauren chuckled.
"I think breakfast has started," said Draco. "We'd better hurry."
"You go ahead. We can finish this," said Pansy. "We only have few more."
"Thanks for the help," said Lauren as Draco turned toward the door.
"I have my broom," said Samara pointing the other way. "Well, not exactly mine, but—"
"You aren't allowed to fly up here," said Draco.
"Well, since I'm in the tower right there—" Samara pointed toward her room. "It seemed ridiculous to walk down the steps from one tower and up the steps to the other tower. Do you want a ride down to the ground or not?"
"Sure. Be careful though. If we're seen, we'll probably both get in trouble." Draco hesitated. "Have breakfast at Slytherin table today," he said as he threw his leg over the broom and sat behind her.
"I don't know—"
But Draco didn't wait for her answer. He wrapped one arm around her and kept the other on the broom as he kicked off from the owlry floor, lifted into the air and then with the precision of a seeker, dropped in a steep dive toward the castle wall.
"Hey, I was flying," complained Samara.
"You don't know where we're going." Said Draco, flying directly toward the stone wall. "open the secret door," he said and banked sharply into a wide tunnel and spoke Alohomora! At another blank wall and dropped to the floor beside his bed. He tossed the broom on the bed and started back out through the opening he had made, pulling Samara with him.
"That's not my broom. I can't just leave it here."
"We'll get it later," Draco promised as they started down the corridor. "I suppose I shouldn't leave that as alohomora now that you've seen it from the outside. Snape will have my head if he realized I did that."
"You made the passageway?"
"Not the passageway. Just the opening. That's why I chose this room. It's been my room for four years now. We're still in the dungeon, but not in the passworded part of Slytherin," said Draco. "Do you know where we are?"
Samara looked around and shook her head. "I'm not sure. Potions is that way, right?"
Draco laughed. "No," he said pointing in the opposite direction "That way."
"I guess that secret door won't matter, then. I'm lost," laughed Samara. "You know, if someone blindfolded me and put me in this maze down here, I may never get out."
"Oh, I'd come and find you," said Draco. "This corridor leads to the Great Hall, but there's a short cut." He squeezed behind a suit of armor to an unlit side passageway.
Samara stopped and Draco halted an arm's length in front of her. "Come on," he began, but she slid her arms around his neck, feeling his silky hair against her fingers in the dark.
He lowered his head and kissed her, the faint spark of his magic rippling along her senses, and then he broke away. "Come on," he said, tugging her along.
When they came out of the tunnel they were in the Entrance Foyer outside of the Great Hall. The Foyer was empty except for a pair of Ravenclaws who ignored them. Most of the school students were already at breakfast. Samara hung back, pulling her hand out of his clasp.
"Draco—I don't know if I should sit at the Slytherin Table—"
"Of course you should," said Draco, turning and recapturing her hand. He was warm and his magic was playing over her fingertips, tempting her.
"I—" She pulled away again, but the warm feeling of his magic stayed with her.
Draco turned to face her, his hands jammed into his robe pockets as if to keep them from shaking her. His eyes bored into hers and his aura deepened. "Samara," he said with soft intensity. "You should sit at the Slytherin Table."
"You should," repeated Draco, his voice and aura made her feel somewhat dreamy. "I want you to—"
"OK." She said and with some reservations, she walked with him to the Slytherin table. She felt the trio's eyes on her, accusing her of being a traitor even though Draco wasn't touching her. Vincent moved out of his usual seat beside Draco to let her sit there, and Edward sauntered over to the Slytherin table.
"Hi Samara," he said. "Mind if I sit here?" He indicated the seat on the other side of her.
"Yes, she minds," said Draco. "Pansy's sitting there. Go sit by your brother."
Edward shrugged and moved down the table to Ethan.
"I didn't mind Edward sitting there," said Samara, once Edward was out of earshot.
"I mind," said Draco.
"Jealous?" whispered Samara.
Draco snorted in disbelief, but Samara studied his aura, trying to figure out what he was up to—
Pansy and Lauren entered the Great Hall and sat in the seats that Draco had saved for them. They had barely begun to eat when the post owls started to arrive.
Everything at the Slytherin table said "Anticipation." Everyone's aura seemed to light up with excitement, and then Samara looked at the owls—there were dozens—maybe hundreds—more owls than she had ever seen at one breakfast and most of them were going to the Gryffindor table. She suddenly recognized the little packages—they were the same ones that she and Draco and Pansy and Lauren had sent this morning from the owlry. Why would someone send an owl when they could—The truth of it hit her then.
It was a joke of some kind to get even for the Dragon Breath Mints. She stood, but before she could do anything, Draco spoke. "Mutus!" he said.
Then an owl fluttered down beside her. It was Aggie! In her excitement to see Aggie safe and sound, she temporarily forgot everything else. She began petting Aggie and Draco Acchioed the package from the owl's leg. Without another word, he crushed it and set an Impedimenta Charm around it as a soft silver smoke rose from the remains under the charm.
"On--three, two, one," whispered Pansy.
Pandemonium broke out at the Gryffindor table. Ron Weasley began coughing up spiders as big as his hand. His skin was covered with boils.
Apparently, Harry Potter was close enough to get the boils too as well as some sort of dancing curse. He was hopping about like a marionette, in fact, he hopped right up on the table and continued dancing between the plates.
"Think Potter's getting enough attention yet?" muttered Goyle.
Draco sniggered. "Sh-h-h-" he hushed Goyle. "I want to see Granger."
Hermione looked all right at first glance. She wasn't close enough to Ron to get the boils, although she was beating away the spiders that Ron was puking.
Parvati and Lavender had sprinted away from the spiders and were scratching themselves. They were so hysterical with their itching that it didn't seem to matter to them which body part they were scratching. Then Samara saw the warts that were popping up on Lavender's face and arms. Parvati shrugged her shoulder up apparently to scratch better, but the shoulder stayed that way, growing a huge lump and disfiguring her into a hunchback.
Ginny was apparently close enough to get the warts too. The box in front of her ignited, setting her robes on fire with bright blue flames. Immediately a deluge of water fell from Ginny also dousing the surrounding Gryffindors, squelching the flames even though they hadn't burned her. Neville's box simply blew up, covering him and Lou and their dishes with soot. They didn't appear to be burned though. Both Colin and Dennis Creevy were crying that they were blinded and then seeing nothing but spots in front of their eyes. McGongall tried to assure them that she knew the potion and they weren't permanently blinded.
Hermione's scream pierced the air, and Draco sniggered with laughter. She apparently had just run her hand through her hair and the entire middle section of her hair fell out. She now had a shiny bald spot the width of her hand. She apparently tried to hold the hair on her head, because she put both hands of either side of her head, which caused the rest of her hair to fall out. Although her head was now shiny bald, she was not totally devoid of hair. Her nose hair was growing at a alarming rate, curling and bushing almost as much as what used to grow on her head.
By now the Slytherin table was howling with laughter and it appeared that every single Gryffindor got a curse box of some kind.
Draco removed Samara's mutus charm and the first thing out of her mouth was "Beatrice!" She didn't see her. Where was she? She didn't see her anywhere at the Gryffindor table. Finally she spotted her under the Hufflepuff table. She was in her animagus form.
Edward was just standing at the Slytherin table next to his brother. He was holding his unopened little package. The tiny owl, that Samara now recognized as Ron's owl, Pig was splashing about on the table spilling pumpkin juice, water, tea and generally making a mess. No one was paying any mind to the little nuisance.
"Don't open it!" shouted Samara.
"He's not that stupid," said Draco.
Edward tossed the box into the air. "Incendio!" he said, and Samara missed exactly what happened next because Draco grabbed her around the neck and shoved her under the table. The other Slytherins also dove for cover. Edward's screech of absolute agony echoed above all of the noise at the Gryffindor table and then the lower half of the Slytherin table exploded showering anyone nearby with food and bits of plates and wood. Edward was still screaming. "What on earth had they done?" thought Samara as she pulled from Draco's grasp and crawled out from under the table. The healer in her would not let her remain unharmed when Edward was so obviously in pain. She reached him just before Professor Snape did and she tried to reach out—to touch him—to help him—to heal him, but there was no where to touch. Drops of some sort of acid had spattered all over him and it was eating straight through his robes, his skin—Samara knew exactly what this was. It was the sap from that plant in potions. Left alone it would continue to eat through to muscle and bone—
His skin was already fraught with raw open sores where the acid was still burning. He had stripped off his robes and was working on the clothes he wore underneath. His aura was a turbulent gray like storm clouds.
"Frigidus!" Spat Snape. "Somnus!"
Edward's hysterical screeching finally was silenced. His aura was immediately calmer. Without a word, Snape levitated him and sped him on his way to Madam Pomfrey.
The whimpering and crying from the Gryffindor table seemed subdued after Edward was taken from the Great Hall. His robes were still lying on the floor smoking from the hot acid that had spattered them.
Dumbledore stood, his voice amplified with the Sonorus spell. "No one may leave this room, except for those who need medical attention. Professor McGonagall, please organize the triage at the Gryffindor table." Dumbledore turned toward the Slytherins. "I warned the entire school that these pranks would cease or their would be unpleasant repercussions. You have ignored my warning."
"He said Dinner time pranks," whispered a Slytherin on the other side of Draco. "This is Breakfast—"
"One hundred points will be deducted from Slytherin house," continued Dumbledore, "And each of you will copy two sets of notes today in all of your classes. One will be for yourself and the other will be for one of the cursed Gryffindors. You will hand the notes to your professors before supper this evening and the professors will be sure the notes are accurate. If they are not, you will do them over again correctly."
Several more Slytherins started to mutter under their breath. When we got our mouths fried, we still had to get our own make up work."
"No one took notes for us."
The muttering got louder. "No one took house points off of Gryffindor when they burned our mouths."
"Dumbledore is so unfair."
"It's not as bad as when he took the House Cup off of us four years ago," said one of the sixth year Slytherins. The entire group of fifth, sixth and seventh years seemed to join in the complaints, and the whispering grew louder.
"No one got hurt that bad. We should have toasted them good--"
"Everyone except Edward just got jokes—"
"And Edward was the one responsible!"
"SILENCE!" Roared Dumbledore. "In addition, Slytherin House will not have access to the Quiddich Pitch for the rest of this week."
"What!"
"But we have a game coming up!" said Draco.
"You should have thought of that before you played your little prank, Mr. Malfoy," said Dumbledore. "Be glad I'm not banning Slytherin from Quiddich altogether. That is all." Dumbledore walked over to the Gryffindor table to check injuries while the Slytherins sullenly began to eat.
Beatrice darted over to the Slytherin table and then transformed into a witch. She was about as angry as Beatrice got. "What is it?" asked Samara.
"This," said Beatrice. She was glaring at Lauren and Pansy, and speaking in a low venomous voice. "I treated you as friends. Everyone in Gryffindor said, 'You can't trust a Slytherin," but I told them they were wrong. I can trust Pansy and Lauren. You can't just lump all the Slytherins together and call them all evil. They are individuals. Pansy and Lauren are my friends. I was wrong. You don't know the meaning of the word friend."
"What is wrong with you, Beatrice?" asked Samara. "You didn't even get a curse."
"Not because they didn't try!" shot Beatrice. "Anyway, this is my fault!"
"Your fault? How can it be your fault?" asked Samara.
"Because every single one of those curse boxes was inhaled wasn't it? You got the idea from my puffer."
Sheepishly, Lauren nodded. "It was just too good to pass up," said Lauren.
"The only one that wasn't was Edward's." added Pansy. "Ethan said he would incendio the box. He was right. And then, Draco thought of getting that retarded Weasley owl—"
Beatrice turned her attention to Samara. "Are you coming over to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw this morning?" she asked.
"No," said Samara softly. "I think I may stay in Slytherin for a while."
Beatrice rolled. Her eyes. "You'd better take a hard look at the type of wizarding families you make friends with," she told Samara. "Some wizarding families are better than others, you know." Her dark brown eyes met Draco's and he said nothing as she turned and walked away.
"You have nothing to say to her?" questioned Samara surprised.
"Never argue with a Hufflepuff," said Draco. "It's against my code of honor to attack an unarmed witch."
"What!" said Samara. "You have no code of honor."
"Samara!" said Draco. "I'm hurt. Of course I have a code of honor."
"It's just a really hard code to crack," said Pansy laughing.
"And she's not a Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff wouldn't have confronted you," said Samara.
"Really?" asked Draco. "Do you think I'm that formidable?"
Samara burst out laughing as they headed for the Slytherin Common Room.
Several others were reading or practicing spells. Vincent and Greg had a game of Exploding Snap going, Millicent was trying to find someone to do some homework for her.
"It's too crowded in here," Draco complained.
"Depends upon what you want to do," said Samara with a twinkle in her eye.
""Hmmm," said Draco, as he pulled her into his arms.
"I have a favor to ask you," Samara whispered against his ear.
"What's that?"
"Can you teach me how to do a glamour spell?"
"I can't believe that you don't know how to do a glamour charm or a cooling charm, but you had no trouble at all with the wandless crucio," teased Draco.
"S-h-h!" she hissed. "Lower your voice! I can't believe you said that!"
"What? Glamour charm or cooling charm?"
"Draco!" Samara whispered in exasperation.
"We're in Slytherin common room, not Gryffindor," said Draco. "No one cares what curses you've done."
"But—"
"Do you want to practice this, or something else," asked Draco, nuzzling her neck. "You could just wait and ask Parvati."
"No. I want to practice it. I don't want to have to ask the Gryffindors for anything. Look at me. I'm in the Slytherin common room and no one is cursing me because of the Dragon Breath Mints, but half the Gryffindors think I'm the devil incarnate because I've spoken to you. They probably think I sent all the owls this morning."
"Not even Gryffindors are that dumb," said Draco. "You would have needed a cloning potion first to send that many owls yourself." Draco backed away from her and held his wand loosely in his hand. "Are they really still mad at you?"
Samara nodded.
"Well, like I said before—it's their loss—now about that glamour charm. It's really as simple spell," he said.
"It wasn't in my book, and I never thought of it. Even if I did I would have been afraid of messing up my face and not being able to get it back right again."
"Where was your mother, girl?" said Draco. "No. I did NOT ask that. I refuse to talk about parents, my own included."
Samara giggled.
"Pulchra colos is what I used to negate the red around your eyes this morning. Beautiful colors. You can also use beautiful or handsome face. Probably the best word for face is facies but you have to be careful about your intent because facies can also mean character. Now if you are really in a bad way, you would want to use dissimulatum aspectum, but that's only for use after—well, something like crucio. Gryfindors don't have to worry about that one, though, do they. Remember, glamour spells usually only last for about an hour, sometimes two if it is pretty strong. Although one of the Slytherins said—" Draco paused. "I probably shouldn't tell you that—"
"What? Now you have my curiosity raised. You have to tell me!"
Draco grinned at her and shrugged. "That Parvati's glamour charm lasted all night."
"Oh," said Samara. Then she blushed as she realized what Draco meant. "Parvati?" she said. "He was sure it wasn't Padma?"
"Have you ever seen Padma with a glamour charm? The girl barely combs her hair."
Samara's eyes narrowed. "And she went on and on to me about how she would never date a Slytherin. When was this?"
Draco shrugged. "January, I think. Are you going to try this spell or not?"
"Pulchra facies," said Samara pointing the wand just under her own nose.
'Mmmmm. Very nice," said Draco, touching her cheek, and then kissing it.
"So who taught you to do this spell? Your mum?"
"Yeah," said Draco. "My mum taught me most of what I learned before Hogwarts. Dad was—No. Wait a minute. We're not talking about parents. Remember? Mine are horrific."
"Mine too," said Samara.
"So when did you first do magic?" Draco asked.
"Oh, I don' t know." Answered Samara. "How about you?"
OH I remember that vividly. I wasn't more than a year old. I remember because it was right after my birthday."
"When's your birthday?" Samara interrupted.
"November."
"Scorpio. I should have known."
Draco smiled. "Anyway, my parents had been out, and the house elves had just gotten me to fall asleep. I never slept well when my parents were out."
Samara nodded.
"Mum came home and woke me—"
"She woke you?"
"Yes, Dad was furious at her. He said it could wait until morning--that it had been an eventful day and she needed her rest as well as I did, but she got it into her head that I had to do magic. When Mum gets something into her head like that, no one changes her mind. I finally realized that I would get to go back to sleep if I did what she wanted. I think I broke the bedroom mirror."
"Seven years bad luck," said Samara.
"That's exactly what Dad said," replied Draco laughing.
"How about you? Don't you remember when you first did magic?"
"Well I do remember little things, but nothing really stands out— sometimes I feel like I've always done magic."
"I believe it," said Draco, his soft gray eyes boring into hers. He wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, his fingers playing with the edges of her hair at her waist. She leaned closer and he captured her lips in a gentle kiss. Everything about it was soft and gentle, as if asking forgiveness for his abruptness with her yesterday. He never said the words, but Samara was sure he was sorry for how
he had treated her. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.
==
Liz Carras: Less Ginny/Tom? Well I guess it will continue at about the same amount. A chapter or two of Gryffindor and a Chapter of "the others". Sometimes Ginny will be in the Gryffindor stuff and somethimes not, but well, Tom is an integral part of the story, so he stays. Yes, Ginny will soon get the idea of how to do that wandless magic, with or without Tom.
Reiven: I love it. Yes, Harry does seem quite sure that Eddie—is Slytherin. And yes to all the Lestrange stuff, except that, when this story was conceived, JK didn't have a 5th book, and the Lestrange woman in JK's book didn't have a first name. I called her Valeriana—for a reason, so I can't change her name to Bellatrix. Anyway I don't like Bellatrix much as a name--same woman, different in my mind than JK's of course. And which death confuses you? One of mine? Or one of JK's? And of course cold hearted is in the eye of the beholder or the mind of the reader, I should say. After all Lestrange called herself "loyal" to the Dark Lord. Yes, Harry was a little nasty there wasn't he. Well that was to make up for all the people that hated Ginny saying what a sweetheart he was. Guess we all have a little bit of both--Did you like the Samara/Draco stuff here? At the end of the chapter, I wondered how many people realized that Samara's broom is still in Draco's room. Hmmm. I thought about sending them back to get it--Well, it's PG-13.
I wondered if anyone would question the black cat. Answered in the above chapter. What did the Slyths do to make McGonagall so mad—well you have to realize she gets them on Friday right after their "field trips" to the Dark Lord. They aren't in the best of moods.
Silverfox: Yes, poor Gregory. Who goes on a trip to burn out the "enemy" and gets themselves fried? OPPs. Oh well, as Alvin said, lack of brains…And the twins can take a joke even if Samara can't. More Bea the Bunny coming up. Read Silverfox. Her fics are very good
Slytherin's Silver Snake: Thanks for the vote of confidence. Read Slytherin's Silver Snake. Good stuff.
Trillium: Well, less said about the 5th book the better. Don't want to ruin it for those who haven't read it yet, but I'm thinking of this as the 5th book now. Hey, it's mine! About Samara-Yeah, she was pretty abrupt with the twins. Good thing they can take a joke. About McGonagall—Were you really surprised that she would go along with Snape's bunny plan? Well, remember, Snape told McGonagall that Neville had already acchoed his wand. He just needed a compelling reason to do it again. But Neville's sensitive. It hurt his feelings more than it should have. After all, like they tried to tell him, McGonagall wouldn't use a real bunny! Of course, remember she had no problem turning hedgehogs into—what—water goblets? And those were real hedgehogs! Does that kill the hedgehog?
Fallen Angel of Darkness: Edward is very glad that you think he's the prophecy child. Glad you like the G/T bits.
Kemenran: Here's what happens now. You check everyday, and review and when there are 10 or more reviews you get a new chapter.
==REVIEW. Do it right now, while you are thinking about it. 10 reviews=one new chapter.
Special thanks to the above reviewers who are just great and always have a bit of insight for me. READ THEIR FICS.
--Lady Lestrange