Disclaimer: All characters recognized in the Harry Potter books are under copyright of J.K Rowling. The characters Harriet Aimworthy, Luke McLean and Mandy Cooper belong to me.
-oOo-
Chapter 6 – Tears of the Serpent
September 14th, 1942
Seven days and seven nights followed the turn of events that the students of Hogwarts had engaged in recently, especially over the concern of Esterella's health. Her friends were still frantically worrying about her constantly, day and night, and had become their number one priority during discussions.
"She should be improving by now," Danielle thought out loud at times, as the Ravenclaws sat around their table, tucking into their breakfast. "Right?"
And the response she got was always the same. Shrugs, exchanged glances, and the occasional "dunno" from Drew with his mouth full of bacon.
However, although Princesa was also thinking of her friend's condition in the Infirmary, without Esterella to be with, she found herself spending a lot of her time with Tom. They would walk each other to their lessons (although sometimes Tom said that he had to rush off to the library and wasn't able to), and would often take walks around the castle during free time.
Princesa knew that although she hadn't known Tom for a long time, she found him very interesting to talk to, and wanted to understand him more. There were times that she felt he wasn't completely engaged in what they had to say; as if he were in another world of his own.
He's so mysterious, she told herself. I don't understand why he's like that, but I'd love to know.
There was one advantage, however, when they spent time together. Peeves, normally out to constantly bug Princesa whenever he passed her, steered clear away from Tom, blowing raspberries as he piloted over their heads.
The O.W.L.S revision never ceased during lessons and homework, much to the exasperation of most students. To some, it felt as if every single teacher kept reminding them just how important these examinations were, and Olivia, for one, felt a little pressured about the whole thing.
"I'm going to fail thethe, I jutht know it," she would complain, scribbling furiously on parchment. "I'm hopeleth, completely hopeleth, I tell you!"
"Oh...don't say that," comforted Rosa, elbowing Regen hard in the ribs as she heard him suppress a snicker. "I'm sure you'll be okay – they're ages away yet. You've got loads of time to revise!"
"Mmm."
They all flinched suddenly as a loud crash rampaged around the Great Hall. They spun around to see Drew scrambling off a few Slytherin students that he had fallen back into. Their faces blackened like thunder, and the hot blush rippling across the Ravenclaw's face clashed ridiculously with his hair.
"Wait a moment," frowned Harriet Aimworthy, a first year who perched herself at the end of the Ravenclaw table. "Who's that standing over him?"
Everyone's eyes darted like hooks on fish-lines to a rather tall girl standing next to a group of Slytherins in her house, her arms crossed across her chest with a perked smile on her attractive face. Her long, dark crimson curls spilled pleasantly over her shoulders, shaping her cheeks perfectly.
"Um, are you okay?" she asked Drew, who received a kick in the shin from a dark haired Slytherin boy, Luke McLean. She attempted to hold back a smirk as she leant over him, holding out her hand. "Here, let me help you –"
"No! That's...that's quite all right, thanks," growled Drew, brushing himself off and glaring at Luke. "That's enough help from you, Jess."
For a short moment, she simply stood there, an enigmatic look glazing across her face. But then, a rising chuckle, like melted honey, rippled past her throat and she concealed it with a hand. A few of the Slytherin girls standing around her burst into frenzied, cruel giggles.
"Oh, don't be silly," she said in a sugary sweet tone, cobalt eyes sparkling. "Come on...on your feet, Drewie." It wasn't until she had grasped hold of his freckled hand and hauled him to his feet that he noticed that she offered him a sly wink, smiling broadly.
Drew's face paled. I hate it when she calls me that! He bit his lip from embarrassment and stared at the floor, wishing that he could fall through the ground, away from the piercing pinpricks of smothered laughter.
"Oh, bless him!" sneered a fifth year, Mandy Cooper, from the Slytherin table. "I think you scared 'im, Jess!"
Guffawing along with the rest of them, Luke strode over and wrapped his arm around her in a tight squeeze.
Drew was not usually the type of person who would suddenly have legs like flobberworms at the slightest chance of being humiliated (Especially by a bunch of Slytherins, he thought bitterly). Normally, he would have laughed like a drain in their faces and called them every name under the sun. Only...this time, it was slightly more complicated.
She's waiting for me to say something, he panicked, staring into Jess's puzzled face. But I can't think of a bloody thing to say! This is so stupid – why do I do this in front of her? I'm such an idiot...idiot...
His thoughts snapped back to reality as he felt a warm hand nestle onto his shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, and he realised that this time her voice was mellower and full of sincerity, rather than a tease.
Somehow it made him feel even worse.
"No...um, I – thanks," he mumbled, almost incoherently, gathering himself together and scurrying back to his seat, Jess shaking her head regretfully in his direction.
-oOo-
"She really likes you," Rosa beamed as he returned, chomping into her toast with glee. "It's so obvious, Drew, why can't you see it?"
The ashamed Ravenclaw simply shrank into his chair, resting his head between his arms and groaning loudly, his face still visible as it glowed a gleaming scarlet against the wooden table. "Funny way of showing it," he spat coldly, his words muffled. "Bloody making a fool out of me – "
"That's just the way she is," explained Danielle, cupping her cheek in her hand, smirking. "Besides," she added, raising an eyebrow. "I think you like her too."
It was almost as if someone had grabbed the back of the boy's collar and jerked his head back as far as it would go. Drew's eyes burned as he stared at her with his mouth open. His fist clenched against the table.
"Don't make me laugh," he snorted as an eyelid twitched. "Don't you dare – how the hell could I like her! Always teasing me, and making me look stupid! You know what? I've got an idea," his voice oozed with sarcasm. "Maybe I should just go and propose right now!"
His head connected to the table with a thump.
"You could always ask her to the Yule Ball," suggested Jessica, sipping her pumpkin juice.
He pulled a face, now lazily twisting his fork back and forth on his plate, attempting to release the stinging flame of flush from his nose. "Nah – don't think so," he replied rudely.
"But she really likes you!" protested Rosa again with some level of aggravation. "My mother's right: 'Boys will be boys'! You can't even see that she fancies you!"
"Then how do you explain her constantly provoking me?" snapped Drew, eyeing her coldly with dishevelled hair.
His friend simply shrugged as she helped herself to more sausages. "Go figure," she said. "Perhaps that's just the way she does it. If she likes someone, she teases them – or makes fun of them, some girls are that way."
Drew blinked. "What's the bloody point of that!"
"It's all about reverse psychology," explained Danielle, with her own secret smile. "You treat them like dirt to not let on that you really do like them. Or, in your case," she included, folding her arms triumphantly. "It's the fact of doing exactly the same thing back –"
"I do not fancy Jess!" snarled Drew, banging his fist on the table and knocking over Princesa's juice. "I wouldn't date that...that cow if she was the last girl on earth – and that's final, I'm afraid."
Rosa and Danielle simply exchanged glances.
"Stop it!" the boy snapped, his cheeks blazing with the burn of embers as he gathered up his books and stormed away down the hall. "I don't even like her!"
Danielle chuckled and shook her head, scooping up her fork and helping herself to another sausage. "If you say so, Drewie."
-oOo-
"Dress robes!" spluttered Regen to Rosa as the Ravenclaws trudged their way back from their Divination lesson. "Is that what you were whispering about in there?"
"Of course," replied Danielle in a matter-of-fact tone. "The ball's three months away, practically. We've all got to start thinking about buying dress robes before all the good ones are taken."
Drew blinked. "But it's September," he groaned. "Christmas is ages away yet!"
"That's what they want you to think," smirked Rosa, testing out her wand on pieces of fabric to ponder over the many selection of colours. "Do you think blue would go better with my eyes, or green?"
"You must be at least thinking about it a little bit," chimed in Princesa, who seemed just as eager about the ball as Rosa. "Not even what colour you want to be dressed in? Or who you might be taking?"
Regen shook his head sceptically to himself and continued walking ahead, staring curiously at Princesa. "No, I'm going to wait another three months before I start pondering over things like that," he chuckled. "Why? Have you decided?"
"Well, I was considering something in turquoise –"
"No, no," Regen interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "Not about the robes, have you got an idea who you might be going with yet?"
"Oh," said Princesa, and her face seemed to fall into a strange look of mystery, although she seemed slightly fidgety. "Oh..." she murmured again, awkwardly. "Well...I was – I was really thinking about asking...about asking Tom to go with me."
The others frowned, the name a complete puzzlement to them. They turned to one another and explored expressions, but it seemed that no one knew who in the world she was talking about.
"Who's Tom?" Rosa enquired, trying not to smirk.
"He's just a boy I'm friends with," said Princesa quickly, adjusting her bag strap in an effort to conceal her flushed face. She really wasn't very comfortable talking about boys in front of her friends, even though that this was only Tom. "I just thought it would be nice to ask him."
"You've never told us about him before," piped up Drew, folding his arms and staring at Princesa.
The girl shrugged and avoided his gaze. "I am now."
"I don't even think we've seen him before."
"Well, he's in the library a lot," the Ravenclaw tried to explain, hiding behind her curtain of dark auburn hair and staring at the floor. "He likes to study there. He's a prefect too, you know? So...he has to keep up with his studies as well as his hall –"
"Oh, do you mean Tom Riddle?" Danielle cut in, pointing straight at her friend's coy face with a victorious shimmer in her eyes. "He's that Slytherin prefect, right? He's always wandering around corners and around the back of classrooms, all sorts of places, really."
"Yeah," said Princesa in a quiet voice. "That's him."
"You wanted to ask him?" gawped Rosa, almost dropping her books on Olivia's foot in surprise, her dark brown eyes ballooning. "He's so mysterious, right? I've seen him before, he's like a shadow. You don't even realise he's there until he threatens to report you."
Princesa shrugged with a glare. "I see him."
"Yeah, okay," giggled Olivia, patting her friend on the shoulder.
It seemed as if her friends had touched a raw nerve in her rather fragile system. The bridge of her face burned a bright maroon and she fumed, screwing her nose up angrily and clutching her books protectively – and more firmly – to her chest. "Stop teasing me," she growled, her eyes burning. "Why do you always have to tease me?"
"She's not teasing you," sighed Danielle. "Stop being paranoid."
Princesa whirled on her with a new wave of rage before pulling away from them and stomping off down the hall. "Paranoid?" they thought they heard her mumble as she walked away. "Pfft. Look who's talking."
No one said a word about that afterwards. Perhaps it was because they didn't wish to anger their friend further, as she already seemed to be in a pretty foul mood. However, they all knew that the truth was because they secretly felt that she was right.
-oOo-
Furious footsteps clomped along with the angry beats of Princesa's pounding heart as she made her way to the library to find Tom, holding books in her fists and snorting like a rampaging bull.
Stupid friends, she thought bitterly. How could they say that to me? To me? They're supposed to be on my side – they're supposed to listen to me! Well, in that case – forget them. I'll just find someone who will listen to me.
Turning a sharp corner with a whip of her school robes, she stormed into the library (although receiving a sharp hush from Madam Pince, the librarian) and spotted a boy sitting not too far away, flicking through the pages of an old book, intrigued in its contents. She marched her way over to him.
"Hello, Tom," she greeted, slapping a smile onto her flustered face.
Slam! Jumping as though he had been electrocuted, Tom's teeth clenched together as he quickly shut the book on itself and glanced upward at the Ravenclaw with a guilty smile. "Oh, hello!" It sounded extremely false and he took to raking through his dark hair and casting nervous glances at Madam Pince.
Princesa frowned. "Are you all right?" She cocked her head, attempting to view the cover of his book. "What are you reading –?"
"Nothing!" he said quickly, snatching the book off the table and shoving it into his bag, looking a little frustrated. "Just something for homework, you understand – what's the matter?" he suddenly asked, noticing the hidden fury in her eyes.
"Oh," she muttered flatly, staring at the floor, adjusting her bag strap. "It's just...my friends again, it's nothing."
Tom nodded and scraped all of his belongings into his bag. "Mmm." He certainly looked as if he didn't really find it very hard to understand her problem – being that she often talked about her friends in this manner. He wasn't sure if he was finding it more annoying than she was.
"Actually," sidled Princesa, eager to change the subject. "I was wondering if you wanted to come for a little stroll before our next lesson –"
"Of course," he interrupted, jolting to his feet and grabbing her arm and leading her out of the library. "Madam Pince is beginning to irritate me dreadfully."
Stumbling over her shoes in complete shock, the Ravenclaw wondered why Tom was suddenly so desperate to escape the looming bookshelves and the razor-sharp eyes of Madam Pince, who peered at them suspiciously over her long nose.
"Tom!" she hissed at him, after almost tripping over a crack in the stone floor. "What are you doing –?"
"Nothing," he snapped back. "I just want to get out of here, that's all."
The tense atmosphere between the two disappeared, however, once they had both left the library and were pacing peacefully down the corridors. They never spoke of anything more of the awkward moment between them, and dismissed it almost as if it hadn't happened.
Princesa preferred it that way. Rather to keep uncomfortable issues to ourselves then to talk about them, she decided. That way, things are left unsaid and we save further embarrassment.
She was broken away from her thoughts, however, by the sound of loud, piteous wails coming from the hall in front of them. Without question, it was obviously a girl, and she sounded very upset – whoever she was. The two of them stopped in their tracks and exchanged glances.
"Who is that?" Princesa asked.
Tom shook his head with a tiny shrug. "I don't have a clue," he admitted in a bored voice. "It can't be anything of concern. Come on, let's go."
Yet, as they passed the entrance to the girl's bathroom, the howls and sobs became unbearable to their ears and they had to cover them up to avoid a headache later on. Princesa squeezed her eyes shut, cursing lightly in Spanish.
A string of spiteful words billowed out from the bathroom, reaching their attention despite the fact that their hands were practically glued to their earlobes. Princesa turned and frowned at the horrible voice – who sounded none other than a second girl.
"Oh, cry-baby! Stupid, moaning cry-baby! What's the matter? Afraid you'll make us all be sick at the sight of your miserable face?" She exploded into cruel chuckles. "Stupid baby – always crying!"
Princesa could stand it no longer. If there was nothing that she could never bear to withstand, it was the torment of another; especially when they were too upset, or weak, or frightened to fight back.
She's got some nerve, that vaca, she thought, clenching her teeth.
"Oh...come on, Tom," she snarled, whirling on her heel and marching back into the bathroom, hearing the mournful sobbing becoming ever louder at her bully's comments. "We can't let her talk to people like that!"
Tom rolled his eyes, but he didn't move. He really hadn't intended on being the peacemakers in this situation, and had only wished to get away from people like that. Something, secretly inside him agreed with the rude, name-calling student.
She's right, he told himself, turning away and pulling out the creases in his robes. She is a worthless cry-baby. Tears are the signs of weakness. I have no time for her.
So he stood where he was, staring at the wall.
Princesa found herself sending forth her army into the bathroom alone, although this didn't cloud her rage. "Hey, you!" she roared, stomping over towards the girl like an angry rhino and, grabbing her by the shoulder, pulled her around to stare into her mean face. "What do you think you're doing – calling people names like that!"
The girl (who Princesa noticed had the crest of Slytherin imprinted onto the breast of her robes) had short red hair clipped below her earlobes, giving her rather goblin-like features. Her small, squinty eyes – filled with malice – were a murky, lime green. She had freckles splattered all over her turned-up nose, and she glared at Princesa as if she had just crawled out of the nearest gutter.
"Who are you?" she asked viciously, looking her up and down with a sneer.
"It doesn't matter," Princesa spat, hearing the victim's wails quieten down a little. "Why are you teasing that girl? Leave her alone! Can't you see she's upset?"
The Slytherin girl, Olive Hornby, smirked at the reply and threw her interrogator a dirty look. "I don't see why this should have anything to do with you," she retorted back, folding her arms and grinning out of the side of her face. "Don't you have some books to drool over, or something?"
Princesa blinked, her heart pounding furiously in her head. She felt her hands trembling from rage. How could anyone be so arrogant? She suddenly felt a sudden desire to sock her one. However, she knew that she did not have the right kind of strength or nerve to do something like that. It was more like something that Esterella would do.
"You're as bad as her in there," Olive scoffed, tilting her head in the direction of an occupied cubicle. "Too damn clever for her own good – glasses almost as big as her brain." She giggled at her own remark.
"Well, you shouldn't call people names," said the Ravenclaw coldly. "Especially if it makes her upset –"
"Oh, she's always upset about everything!" Olive groaned, rolling her eyes, looking as if she were battling the urge to scream with irrepressible laughter. "You only have to say she's a little bit on the spotty side –" (at that moment, from inside the cubicle came a low, despondent moan) "and it's like the garden sprinklers have just been set off, or something! She's so much fun to tease. You'll always get a reaction!"
Princesa's mouth fell open. "You're horrid!" she barked, her hands curling into fists at her sides. "You're nothing but a big, cowardly bully!"
The girl rolled her eyes up into her head with a callous smirk, as if she couldn't have cared less.
I really will hit her! Princesa suddenly thought wildly, Olive's smug face burning behind her lids and bringing her heart to explode into monstrous flames. She felt them licking her face and burning them into crimson rage. I really will let her have it, the spiteful, evil –
"And what on earth is going on in here?" came Vanessa's dry voice, as she poked her head around the corner with a raised eyebrow. Scott stood right beside her, the pair of them with folded arms and carrying serious, stone-faced expressions.
"Nothing," said Olive quickly. "Just having a little girly chat whilst we relieve ourselves, prefects."
"Enough of your cheek, Hornby," Scott ordered, in his cool, calm voice of purest fury.
Princesa brushed away her enraged thoughts of bringing pain upon Olive's evil little freckled nose and turned towards the seventh years. "She was teasing a girl in that cubicle," she explained, pointing to it, her hands still shaking slightly. "She was crying horribly – I had to see what was going on!"
"Stop lying," sneered the Slytherin, rolling her green eyes with relish. "I was attempting to cheer her up! I came in here and she was crying, so I wanted to make her feel better, that's all."
"You're the liar!"
"Prove it."
"That's enough of that!" yelled Vanessa, breaking into the argument. "Let's all take you to somewhere quiet where we can discuss this like adults – and, oi! You!" she hollered, marching over to the cubicle of misery and pounding her fist on it. "Come on, get out of there – we have to sort this out!"
"Go away!" sniffed the girl, her voice choked and teary.
Vanessa's temper began to bubble and she banged harder, causing echoes to vibrate around the whole bathroom. "Get out. Now!"
"Come on, girls," offered Scott, ushering Princesa and Olive out of the way of the sinks and hard titled walls, so they could do no damage to each other. "Let's go –come on! And stop shoving each other – for God's sakes, let go of her hair!" he screamed at Olive, who had spitefully yanked at a piece of Princesa's waist long auburn strands.
Princesa had also noticed that Tom was nowhere to be seen.
However, once all of the party had left the bathroom, Tom peered in, his attention suddenly directed to one of the perfectly crafted sink taps, made out of copper lead metal, and inscribed and built into the shape of a serpent, fangs gleaming and a malevolent hiss springing from its mouth.
Hmmm, Tom pondered, raising an eyebrow. Interesting.
And on that thought, he scooped the library book from the inside of his bag and opened it to the page that Princesa had caught him at, tracing his finger over the words and giving the serpent-shaped tap another long, pensive stare. A small smile crossed his face as he headed back towards his common room, looking quite pleased with himself.
Very interesting.
-oOo-
Spanish Dictionary
vaca: cow