Professor Trelawney was acting more bizarre and spaced out than she had the previous year. Hearing the other students whispering, Rhyann guessed even they were surprised seeing the Divinations teacher so preoccupied with whatever silly nonsense was rattling around in her crystal ball or all seeing eye. She went around the room, touching each student on the forehead and uttering some prediction for them.
There were mostly snickers for some things were outlandish. Lavender Brown was told that she would find true love and then bounce it around London before the end of the year. Pansy was told to beware of performing monkeys and someone else had something about getting a pimple as pink as and shaped like an elephant. When Trelawney came to the dreamer, Rhyann looked up at her trying not to appear as bored as she was. In a wispy and faraway voice, she made her prediction. "You will wake up."
That was it.
Rhyann blinked and almost as if there was more, but Trelawney had moved on to the next person. The idiotic stuff that the professor usually babbled on about was meaningless, she knew. Yet that one simple sentence meant much more to her than anything else because she was a dreamer. What exactly did it mean though?
She shook her head listening to some of the other gibberish she was rattling off to the remaining students. Perhaps it really was nothing. Maybe Trelawney was just losing her touch in making up obscure and fake prophecies. Rhyann set her mouth in a thin line. Since when had the crazy old witch said anything true?
Trelawney had come to the little table where Ron and Harry sat. She took on look at The-Boy-That-Lived, her face paled and she took a number of steps backwards before collapsing on a pile of pillows muttering, "Death… death… so much death…"
Many of the students rolled their eyes. One whispered to Rhyann that Trelawney predicted that Harry was going to die every year! Even the scarred Gryffindor was giving the teacher a skeptical look. She could hear Ron giving a joking huff that he never got to hear his prediction and it was followed by another round of sniggering.
A few of the girls had went to help Trelawney but there was not much of a class after that. They then went down out of the tower and to Firenze's indoor grove for the final class of the day. The centaur, too, seemed uncharacteristically distracted. He would stare up at the stars, saying nothing for a while or look into the smoke from the burning herbs in the center of the room. Supposedly one who was trained could pick out images and foretell events that way. Rhyann had never seen anything other than sickly sweet smelling smoke herself.
There was a silent anticipation of another scene in this class. It never came though. Eventually Firenze started talking about the stars and how Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were getting ready to line up in a syzygy, a rare celestial event in which three objects in the sky eclipsed each other. The professor's explanations at what the stars foretold were always vague. He criticized human fortune telling, but Rhyann did not think anything more of his own kind.
If the centaur's classes had only been a dull reading of the stars, she might not have minded them so much. Trelawney always ignored most people who did not enthusiastically support her like a few of those idiotic Gryffindor girls. Firenze, on the other hand, would give her long and significant looks. They weren't hostile nor were they friendly. Rhyann felt they were somewhat akin to Dumbledore's looks. There was always something much more going on behind those eyes and they knew more about her than they let on.
She had hoped that Lucius and Darcy would have had more success in getting the half-breeds out of Hogwarts. The dreamer had heard nothing of their petitioning this year yet but she guessed that there was just too many other things for them to worry about at the moment. Creatures like Hagrid and Firenze had no business teaching humans. She did not learn anything from them. They were more suited to doing simple, hard labor outside.
They were the Headmaster's pets though. It was another reason to get rid of them, of course, but teaching at a magic school should only be done by qualified wizards and witches. Lost to her own thoughts, Rhyann sat up when she heard Firenze saying that this would be an extremely significant year and excused the class. She wondered if he could see in the stars that the Dark Lord would be ruling the wizarding world next year.
On her way out, Potter brushed by her and whispered a time to her. She almost missed what he said. He had said eight o'clock though. Rhyann gave no sign that she had heard and ignored him as she head in the direction of Slytherin tower. Of all the people that Lucius had forbidden her to have contact with, Harry was the top amongst them. It was bolstered by the fact that Draco hated him as well.
She did have her duties though which were much the same as the previous year. She had built up the friendship with those Gryffindors for a purpose and she would use it to her advantage. The loss of that position would make things harder for her. It did not matter what the Malfoys thought in the end, but she would rather not chance them doing anything.
The petite teen entered the common room and there was a lot of animated chat going on. Pansy motioned for her to come over and join the seventh year girls. "Oh Rhyann! You should be so proud of Draco! Two of the celebrity quidditch players that he had written have already sent owls back and agreed to come to the tournament!" She clapped her hands excitedly and let out a little squeal. "Finbar Quigley, the captain of the Ballycastle Bats, is one of them!"
Rhyann smiled, trying to appear happy about it all. She had no idea who Quigley or the Ballycastle Bats were. She heard Draco talk often about quidditch, but she usually tuned him out at those moments. She could not understand everyone's fascination with the sport. "That's wonderful."
"And all of the Wigtown Wanderers gave a yes to coming as well! This is only the first day! I'm sure by the end of the week, all the people will have written back and said they're coming!" Pansy was bouncing around in her seat. "It will be up to us to make sure that Slytherin gets the most support. We'll have to make a mascot. Ooooh!" She turned to a few of the other girls. "Remember at the World Cup a few years ago and the Bulgarians had the Veela! We could dress up ourselves and cheer the team on!"
It was difficult to restrain herself from looking horrified at that suggestion. Some of the other girls applauded the idea, already talking about outfits. At least Rhyann was glad to see that Millicent and Drucinda were not as gung-ho as the others. She knew she was the girlfriend of the team's captain, but there wasn't any bit of her that could find any enthusiasm for the sport. It actually was almost frightening the intensity of some fans' loyalty to their teams and to quidditch itself. And she knew it was not just because she was female. There were enough witches who were avid fans and players too.
"Did I hear something about Veela!" Draco had come over, grinning, and slipped his arm over his girlfriend's shoulders. "Now if you can find us some of those, we will gladly make them the top attraction!"
There were giggles and Pansy gave him a little poke on the shoulder. "Of course you would say that! There wouldn't be any quidditch played that day if all you men were standing around gawking at Veela!"
"Well, if you do find some way to get some, I'll whole-heartedly support you!" He winked at the girls, flashing his charming smile. "I need to borrow Rhyann for a bit though. So please do excuse us."
Pansy smirked at the two of them and waved them off. She then went back to animatedly talking about decorations, outfits and whatever else was fluttering through her mind. Rhyann was thankful for getting away from them, but she doubted that he had come over to rescue her.
"So, I hear your plans are coming together well then."
Draco sat them down off to the side away from most of the other students. It seemed as though he could not stop grinning. She had not seen such a twinkle in his eyes in a while. He was very excited about this tournament. If it were at all appropriate, she bet he would be bouncing around in his seat like Pansy!
"Of course it is! Did you have any doubts! There's no way any of the other Houses will have an event to match ours." He declared confidently. "My father even said that he can get the Keeper from the Gorodok Gargoyles for us. Plus Simon Wedge to referee the matches! It's going to be spectacular!"
Rhyann nodded, not having a clue who these people were nor even caring an ounce about them. Draco noted her expression and chuckled, leaning in to kiss her neck. "I know you don't know a lot about quidditch, but after this year, you'll know as much as any of us! Perhaps I'll have to arrange some time for us so that I can teach you all you need to know about it. It will help you when you and the girls are organizing the other things."
"Draco," She unwillingly felt a pleasant little tingle go through her body at his kiss. "You know I don't have time for any of this. I have my own work to do…"
"That will be at night though." He brushed off her excuse. "All of Slytherin will have to be in together on this. All of the Houses at Hogwarts will be playing, of course, but it isn't their event. There will be teams from other magic schools competing as well. We will have to show them all just what Slytherin is capable of and I need everyone to help with that." He kissed her again, a little higher up on her neck.
"Pansy seems to have a handle on things. Besides, this is more her kind of thing than mine…" Rhyann was silenced by another kiss and she sighed into it. She knew enough by now that he was just trying to wear her down this way. As much as she hated to admit it, it did sometimes work, but she just couldn't see her place in this whole quidditch thing. "Draco…"
"Please, Rhyann. I know how you feel about these things, but this is extremely important to me." His pale eyes stared into her dark ones. "Pansy has good ideas, but yours are much more tasteful. Veela would grab everyone's attention, but then not everyone will be concentrating on the quidditch matches. They even distract the players. I won't have that. You won't have to do too much. Just make sure the girls don't get out of hand with what they want to do."
"I'll do what I can." Whatever that may be. Rhyann did not want to be involved in it in any way, but if she heard an idea that she thought was ridiculous, she could easily just go plant some suggestions in the girls' sleeping minds and direct them towards something else.
"That's all I wanted to hear." Draco's lips grazed against hers again and then he sat back, handing her a folded parchment from his robes. "Here. This is from my father. He said you would know what to do."
A scowl immediately came to her face and she took the parchment from him. So not only was he trying to butter her up to help him, but he was doing so for his father as well. The dreamer would have thought by now that Draco would realize that there was nothing that could be done to make her like doing anything for Lucius. The calming effect the kisses had on her vanished and she sat rigidly as she unfolded it.
It was a list of names along with the wizards' place of residence. Most of the names she recognized as business wizards that Lucius had her look into their sleeping minds over the summer. He would give her lists and she would go gather any information she could for him. A few times, he had her give them nightmares and even hurt them in the dreams. Just warnings, he had told her.
The names that were written with black ink were ones she just had to gather information from. The ones in blue were to have nightmares and warnings. This time, though, there were two names in red at the end of the list. The list had not been sealed, so she assumed Draco had already looked at it. She pointed to the red ink. "What's that mean?"
He glanced down, a bit of amusement in his expression. His gaze was on her to watch her reaction though. "Those are ones who had their share of warnings."
Rhyann let that sink in for a moment. So they had their warnings. She almost asked what that meant then, but caught herself before the question made it down to her mouth. They had not heeded the warnings and now they were going to die for them. That was what it meant. She sat there unmoving, not even breathing, for uncounted seconds.
"You do understand then?" The blond coolly raised an eyebrow. He looked so much like his father at the moment.
"I understand." Her reply was colder than his. She folded the list and put it into her robes. Rhyann had been Lucius' spy all summer. She had also been a sort of thug as well, delivering warnings through dreams to those that he thought crossed him. Now he was testing out a new use for his little tool: he was making her his assassin.
All of the noise in the common room seemed to fade away. Her whole body felt numb. She was not afraid to kill. This was not what was freezing her senses. It was her rage. She almost thought the intensity of it would strike her blind. She stood up and somehow managed to make smoothing her robes look like a natural movement.
"Where are you going?" Draco peered up at her.
"I need to take a walk. Have some time to myself… to prepare." Her voice sounded hollow. It was not because she felt empty inside either. She was going to boil over if she did not escape the room.
"It's almost time for dinner. You can walk afterwards."
"I'm not hungry. I'm walking now." There was no room for questioning in her tone. As she marched out of the tower, Draco was at least wise enough to know not to stop her. She could feel his eyes upon her the entire way until she disappeared out into the hall and gave a visible shudder once she was alone as if she could shake off his gaze.
What was Lucius doing! It was her first day back at school. She had thought that later on in the semester, he might send her something to do for him. It was benefiting him too much to have a spy with her abilities. He knew, too, that she did take his threats seriously and that she would not endanger her family. The only thing she could think of was that he was testing her. Testing the limits of her loyalty, of her talents and of his control over her. The best way to do that to someone was to catch them unawares. He had certainly done that.
Rhyann went down one of the narrow side corridors and down a few flight of stairs to an exit. She sat down in the door and looked out over the green grass to the forest beyond. If one looked from any door or window out of Hogwarts, they would find the view beautiful, but it was not the scenery she was seeing at the moment.
She had promised herself that she would not be used as a tool by anyone. Then the one she had loved the most had betrayed her to a most adept user. One that seemed was honing her into a deadly weapon. Draco's duplicity still cut her deeply. She knew he was merely a tool used by his father as well even if he would not see it himself. Draco was the one used to get to her and she bet than none of them would have expected the level of success that plan had produced.
Pressing her palms against her closed eyes, Rhyann willed away the tears. She would do as Lucius wanted her to do. The Dark Lord had given her duties for Hogwarts but he had also instructed her to obey his favorite Death Eater as well. She could not see herself as a killer, but in the dreaming realm, she ruled and she could do anything. She would have murdered the old crone, Nattie Fluttershar if she had not been killed in the waking world first.
She would not give up on finding away to be free of fall of them though. There had to be some way that she could loose the grip that Lucius had on her and the power that Voldemort held over her. Though she was a powerful dreamer, she was only one. Her uncles' lives were in danger. She would not lose them. It was a dangerous road she traveled and Rhyann knew that it had only started to get rocky.