Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, only Raven and her family and background. And this story. Yeah.
Chapter Notes: Sorry this has taken so long, guys. I really didn't want to post anymore chapters until I figured out where I was going in chapter twelve…and let me tell you, it's taken me a while to get over my writer's block. And I've also started a new story, I'm sure some of you know…Anyway, on with Chapter Eleven!
Anyway, if you have any questions, comments or ideas, please feel free to tell me. I'll try to accommodate as best I can. (I really like ideas... :)
Please review; I'd really like some constructive criticism! Try not to flame; constructive criticism is by far more helpful in a world of hate. (Ok, that sounded a little cheesy, but I meant it.)
Spelling the Door
The next morning, Snape came by and picked up the vial.
"I assume you had no problems doing this by midnight?" He asked, looking at the contents.
"No, sir. I started filling the vial at precisely midnight."
"Good. I will come by tomorrow evening with the potion and the proper runic map. We will put the map on the inside of the door, so that those outside will not know what we are doing."
"Yes, sir. Thank you."
He nodded curtly. "I'll see you tomorrow evening, Miss Harrell." I nodded back, and Professor Snape left with the vial.
The day went by rather uneventfully, and Draco only cast me an arrogant look during breakfast; a reminder of what had transpired the night before. Don't look at me like that, you git. You're creeping me out with your weird behaviour.
The next evening, Professor Snape knocked on my door; it was time to administer the potion. Stepping inside and closing the door behind him, Snape withdrew from his robes a piece of parchment and a large phial of a dark purple substance. It was thick like paint, and had a slightly metallic smell to it.
"Here is the runic map we will be using." And he handed me the parchment, which had on it a circle with criss-crossing circles inside, and a ring of runic symbols around the outside. In the very centre of the design, there was a rune that was different from all the others. I recognised some of the runes from various things I had read, but didn't remember their names or their meanings, although I assumed most of them were for protection. "The rune in the centre of the circle will be for your magical signature," Snape said.
"Excuse me, sir?"
"All witches and wizards have a magical signature, Miss Harrell. It's like a symbol of your own magic that you leave wherever you perform a spell or other type of magic. There is only one way to detect magic by someone who cannot innately do so. It's a very complicated spell requiring a lot of concentration. This symbol is not your magical signature, it is only a rune to help open up the channelling of your personal magic and it will be replaced with your magical signature when the time comes to seal the map on the door."
I nodded in understanding, but a question ran through my mind. "Professor, why would someone need to detect someone else's magical signature?"
"For the purposes of criminal investigation. It's very difficult to find someone's magical signature. It's a personal and private thing, and most wizards don't even know their own. So one must be specially trained to find magical signatures."
"You said that someone might be able to detect magical signatures innately?"
"Yes. There are no known people of such power alive today, but there are witches and wizards who can concentrate and actually see magical signatures. Some can actually see the signatures, some can only see colours. These people are generally called Aura Readers."
"Magical signatures have colours?"
"Most do, yes. They're a reflection of the magic that is inside of you. A part of your aura, so to speak. Now, I believe we should start working on this barrier. I will tell you, however, that because of the nature of this type of barrier, you will need to destroy the barrier on the last day of term, and we will need to repeat this process that the start of every term hereafter. I want you to memorise what we do tonight, even write it down somewhere private. It would only seem suspicious if I came in here at the beginning of every term to help you administer the potion. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Let's begin." And Snape opened the large phial, and the metallic smell only got stronger. "Normally," Snape said, "you would either dip or coat the object in this potion for a certain length of time, however, because of your circumstances, we will be adding the runes to direct the properties of the potion in a certain way." I nodded, covering my nose because of the smell. "The good thing about this is that I can administer the runic map to the door using my fingers, and they will remain unaffected, because this potion cannot be used on living organisms."
"Oh."
Snape dipped his first two fingers into the sticky substance as if it were finger paint, and asked me to hold up the runic map where he could see it, as to not make any mistakes. He then put his fingers to the door, drawing a large circle. Inside that, he drew the smaller circles, allowing them to cross over each other, each time, gathering more of the purple potion on his fingers. I watched carefully, as he drew out the runes, memorising the order of the strokes. When he was finished, he cleaned off his hand with a spell and turned to me.
"Now, you need to draw your magical signature."
"How do I do that, sir?"
"Take a bit of the potion onto your fingers, and draw this rune," he said, pointing to the one in the centre of the map, "in the centre circle. The blood in the potion will react to the action of you performing the magic, and the rune will change to reflect your magical signature."
"So is your magical signature in the barrier then? Since you put it on the door?" I asked, dipping my fingers in the potion. It really did feel just like paint.
"Yes, this time it will be. However, I still won't be able to break the barrier, as my blood is not in the potion." I nodded, and then turned to the door.
I looked at the rune, then at Professor Snape. "Is there a specific way to draw it?"
"Draw this vertical line first, then this one, and this one," he explained, pointing to the different lines.
"Ok." And I touched my fingers to the door, watching the purple paint-like substance stick to the wood as I drew the rune. As soon as the last stroke was completed, the whole map glowed a bright and nearly blinding red, and I stepped back a bit. As we watched, the pattern started to move, the runes on the outside ring spinning clockwise, and the circles in the middle becoming a blur as they moved in the opposite direction. The rune in the centre glowed more brightly, and started to morph into a symbol of loops and lines, but it never stopped moving. Then suddenly, it all stopped, and the glowing went out like a dying ember. The door was now clean, devoid of any markings at all. I never got to see exactly what my magical signature looked like.
"Excellent," Snape said, a gleeful glint in his eye.
"It worked?"
He nodded. "Now, the last day of term, you are to prick your finger and write the map over again. Then the seal will be broken. At the beginning of next year, I will ask for more blood, and eventually, I will teach you how to make your own potion. Until that time, I will have to make it for you at the beginning of each term."
"Ok. Thank you very much Professor Snape."
"You're welcome. Now, I believe it's time for me to take my leave. I hope you can sleep better now knowing that your privacy is protected."
"Yes sir. Thank you again, sir."
"Good evening, Miss Harrell."
"Evening, Professor." And Snape left, leaving me alone in my room. Finally! I thought, and then used my wand to wash my hand. There was a knock on the door, and Blaise's voice came through the newly spelled wood.
"Raven? Can I come in?"
Let's see how this works. "Yeah, come in, Blaise." I watched the door intently, and all I saw was the door handle rattle a bit as Blaise turned it from the outside, and then the door swung open to reveal Blaise himself.
"Hey," he said, closing the door behind him.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked.
"I was just wondering…why Snape keeps coming by to see you. I mean…it just seems a little odd. Are you ok? You're not having any problems with potions, are you?"
"No, I'm not. I just…" What to tell him…I hate lying to Blaise… "I've just been feeling a little worried about all the attacks lately. So he's been stopping by to talk to me about it, to make sure it's not affecting my school work." Well, it's not a complete lie…
"Oh. I was actually wondering the same thing, with that little outburst you had a few days ago."
"Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. I'm just…" I sat down on my bed. "I'm…different, you know."
"How so?"
I shrugged. "I'm just different than the rest of you. I mean, you've said it yourself, at the beginning of the year. I'm the one that's abnormal. I actually care about other people, even though they're not in Slytherin." I sighed, then looked at Blaise imploringly. "Is that bad?"
Blaise came over and sat down beside me. "No. At least, I don't think so. I mean, it is a little odd, the way you think differently than the rest of us, but we're all different. And we're only kids. We really should all be scared and worried. And the only reason we aren't is because it's the Heir of Slytherin. The Heir wouldn't attack their own kind."
"But is that really true? I mean…who is the heir of Slytherin? None of us even know who it is. Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?"
Blaise shrugged. "I guess so. But honestly, there isn't a whole lot any of us can do. I really doubt it's anyone currently in Slytherin. At least, I haven't noticed anyone acting too incredibly odd lately. But I'm just trying not to worry about it. And you shouldn't either." He smiled at me. He had a point, although it seemed odd that he'd admit something like the Heir of Slytherin isn't a current student. I mean, where and who could they be? It's not a teacher, is it? That seemed highly unlikely.
But I smiled slightly anyway. Blaise always had a way of making me feel a bit better about things. "You're right, I shouldn't."
"So…" Blaise trailed off.
"So." I said back. We sat in an awkward silence a minute before there was a knock on the door. "Yes?" I called.
"Raven?" I heard a girl's voice say from the other side. "There's an owl for you with a package."
"Ok! I'll be there in a minute!" I called, and then turned to Blaise. "Well, I guess I better go see what that is." He nodded, and we stood, going out to the common room, where there was a familiar owl perched on one of the high-backed chairs, a rather large package hanging from it's beak. I took the package, and patted the owl on the head, after which it took off towards the dungeon door, which opened automatically for the bird as it departed.
The package had a short note attached. It was from my mum, for my birthday. Oh! That's right! I'm twelve tomorrow. I totally forgot…I've been too worried with everything going on at school…
"Who's it from?" Blaise asked.
I smiled as I looked up at him. "It's from my mum. It's my birthday present!"
Blaise's eyes widened. "It's your birthday? Why didn't you tell anyone?" He sounded slightly panicked.
I shrugged. "I just…forgot. And tomorrow's actually my birthday."
"Well, we'll have to throw a party, then!"
"What?" I said, alarmed.
"You can't turn twelve without a birthday party! It's not allowed!"
"But…tomorrow's a Thursday! We can't have a party tomorrow. We'll all have homework!"
"Zabini, don't bother throwing a party for that girl. She's too ungrateful." An unpleasant voice said from the other side of the room.
I whirled around to face Draco. "And just how am I ungrateful?"
"Do you really want me to answer that question?" He drawled, cocking an eyebrow at me.
I frowned, opening my mouth to retort, but before I could do so, Blaise cut in. "Whatever, Draco." Then he turned to me. "How about we just have the house-elves make you a cake. It will be a small party, I swear. Just a few of us, in your room. Please?" His blue eyes were wide and glossy, and his lower lip pouted out just slightly. How could I say no to a face like that?
I sighed. "Alright. But only a few people. And cake. That's it."
He beamed. "I promise." Goodness, he's cute. And awfully sweet. Maybe it's not so bad here…if I have people like Blaise on my side. I could do this for another six years, right?
And Blaise kept his promise. The next evening after dinner, Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Millicent and I gathered in my room for a small birthday party. The cake the house-elves made (by this time, I had read that the elves were magical creatures born into serving wizard families) was absolutely delicious, and they even gave Blaise some juice to go with it. I got cards from everyone, seeing as it was such short notice, but Blaise assured me that they wouldn't forget next year, so I'd better watch out for a big party. My mum had made me a new summer dress to wear, made of a light fabric and coloured varying degrees of green.
The party was short but nice, and after getting a warm hug from Theo, a delicate but squishy hug from Pansy, and a suffocating hug from Millie, Blaise, just before he left, gave me a hug and another kiss on the cheek. Harry's right…he's really not hiding the fact that he likes me.
And the rest of the year went on uneventful, save for the last few days, when I thought I had nearly lost many of those dear to me.
POLL TIME!!! I'm taking a poll, through the reviews. When you review, let me know whom you like Raven to get together with…I'm curious to see what my readers think. Not that it's guaranteed to change my story…but we'll see. :D Oh, and if you have any ideas for the story, don't be afraid to drop me a line…I'm always looking for fresh ideas and outlooks to my story.
A/N: I hope the whole spell and how it works makes sense. If not, review, and I'll be happy to explain as best I can. Also, I'm not sure how soon I'll get to chapter twelve, seeing as I'm just finishing it up, and Christmas is coming, and I have to work (ON CHRISTMAS! Sombody tell me they think the world sucks too…the absurdity of making people work on Christmas…jeeze…) and… yeah. So it might be a while. And I have plenty of the next few years of Raven's time at Hogwarts written, so hopefully, once I can figure out all the in-between stuff and "LITTLE THINGS" –that's a trademarked phrase, you know- then everything else will (or should be easy) Barring that my muse doesn't disappear again, or school and work don't take over my life…or I don't find some other obsession…Love you all! Thanks for Reading!
P.S. I apologise in advance for my hasty review responses…I'm at the library and only have so much time here…
REVIEWS:
Gingerlover: Yeah…I suppose I'm dedicated. I'm trying, anyway. I do actually have quite a bit written, and even a few end ideas…:D Thanks for reading.
PinkKangaroo:Yeah, I wasn't sure about that last scene either…but it just kinda came out and I couldn't think of another situation to use it in later, when they're older…And thanks for the poll input…I'll see what I can do.
SmileyFace3: Thanks for the review, as usual. :D And we'll just have to see about Harry's protectiveness intentions, now won't we…;) But do remember how old he is…and how adorably naïve…
Elanor Black: Thanks for the review! And your poll input. I like grabbing new reader's attention. And don't worry about the English thing…I never would have known…
JetSilphymon: Thank you for reviewing! I'll try to update after this as soon as possible. It may be a few weeks…sorry! And thanks for your input on the poll.
Thanks to you all for reading! I love you!
