Chapter Seven

Royal blue gave way to an eerie gray, and distant thunder rumbled across the forbidden forest. A frosty wind howled through the cracks of the school walls, chilling every room and corridor. It seemed to have gotten colder of late, if that was possible. Small drops of water began to land themselves upon the windows. First grew the drops – large and powerful – and then came the higher winds – roaring fast and suddenly.

"What?" Rae's voice was rather sudden and extremely crisp for it to be so early in the morning. She had sat bolt upright at a sudden icy draft around her neck. The reason for her choice of words was debatable.

Somewhere to her left there was a whistling coming from right around the windowpane. Rae watched the center, where the two sides came together, as they slowly wedged themselves inward. Her attention was drifting, and her eyelids had begun to droop when they burst open. Freezing cold air wove itself around Rae and her roommates.

"Holy shit!"

Her voice was not the only to be heard. Two screams and a string of curses came from the remaining beds, whose curtains had been blown open in the heavy draft. Rae leapt from her bed and hastily closed the shutters, muttering the sealing spell as she went.

"Damn it, Orion! Close the bloody window!"

Rae turned around to see whom the voice belonged to. A girl with white blonde hair and, now, flushed cheeks was stepping out of her bed. She was slightly taller than Rae, and her blue eyes shone out like specks of glittery ice against her pale skin. When she spoke, her voice hat brought back instant memories from the first day of Christmas break. It was cold – like her eyes.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" she yelled, stopping a mere foot away from Rae. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Rae shut her eyes and brought her fingers up to massage her temples. The blood pounded in her ears, like the girl's voice. It was very irritating.

"You think I opened the window?" A sigh escaped her lips. The girl, apparently, took this as an accusation of her intelligence level.

"Do I look stupid to you?"

Rae answered her privately.

"If I look stupid, by all means, tell me!"

At this, Rae had to hold her breath to keep herself from laughing in the girl's face. "No, no. That's not what I mean. I did not open that window. It was the wind – it was blowing so hard that-"

"The wind. Right. As if I'm going to believe that the wind blew open that window." She scoffed. A roll of the eyes signaled her retirement from fighting. The girl walked towards the dormitory bathroom.

"Bye, Denise!" Rae called, mockingly, as the girl slammed the door behind her.

Wishing beyond hope that she had some form of Muggle medication with her, Rae massaged her temples yet again. Madame Pomfrey had said there was nothing she could do about it. It was just her sinuses fluctuating in the weather. She groaned and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. Potions next.

The school had recently been informed of the Potions teacher predicament. Dumbledore had taught the class for the past three days, and Rae looked forward to having him teach a class. He was most always smiling about something. His silver beard caught softly in the light and twinkled. Numerous lines and wrinkles creased his face, but they didn't necessarily make him an old man. Sky blue eyes brought out the youth in him. He was like the grandfather she never had.

A quick glance at her watch told her it was time to head in that direction. She saw the Marauders standing up from the Gryffindor table and rolled her eyes, but immediately regretted it. Her head pounded worse. She sped up going down the stairs, hoping to avoid any contact with them.

A few Slytherins were already standing around the dungeon door. They paid her no mind as she approached them. Denise looked up and sneered at her, but said nothing. She had stopped a few paces away from them in hopes that nobody would speak to her. So far, so good. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Dumbledore was on his way yet. When she left the table, he had still been up there. James Potter's voice, however, was heard before he was seen. Telling another of his jokes, no doubt.

Rae turned her head at a clap of thunder. The morning's storm was just now getting started. White light flashed across the hall from the high window above. She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her raven hair. Her eyes were shut, momentarily, but when they opened, they were under siege.

"Orion!" A familiar voice called her name. She turned towards the dungeon door. Denise stood there with the other girls in their dormitory gathered around her. "Tell us again – why are you in Slytherin?"

Rae sighed and shook her head lightly. "It's a family secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Sarcasm practically dripped from every word.

"Ha! What family? I heard you were raised by some Muggle man." Denise's hands fluttered up to give emphasis to the word 'Muggle'.

Rae's eyes stung. Her voice began to shake. "He's not 'some Muggle man.' For your so wonderfully gathered information, he's my father!"

Denise narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest, her voice becoming dangerous "Don't talk to me like that, mudblood. Have you no respect for the higher society?"

"Higher society my ass, Malfoy." A male voice said from behind Rae. "Can't you shut your arrogant mouth for a minute?"

Rae turned around to see who had spoken. To her surprise, Sirius Black had come loose from his three friends, who normally seemed medically inseparable.

Denise smiled mischievously at him, apparently thinking this was just another of the Marauders plans to ruin other people's lives. "Sirius," she said slowly. "Why-"

"Black, I don't need you sticking up for me! I can handle this myself!" Rae said, turning around to face him.

"But she called you-"

"Just step off, this isn't your argument." She said, raising her voice for the first time. Sirius looked taken aback. He had only been trying to help her.

"I was just-"

"What? You think you can handle me?" Denise's voice was back.

Rae emitted a low growling noise as she faced the girl again. Every word was loud, and pronounced slowly and clearly. "Fuck off, bitch. I will deal with you later."

Denise Malfoy opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. Instead she turned on her heel with her friends and walked into the classroom. Behind her were most of the Gryffindors, hoping not to be late for class.

Rae glared after Denise for a moment before Sirius spoke again. He looked upon her with what she took to be pity.

"Rae, I was just trying to help you."

"Well…" She blinked hard, trying to keep the tears back. She read the pity in his eyes. "Who said I needed your help? I was doing fine until you came along!"

"No, you weren't. She was walking all over you before-"

"Save it, Black!" Rae's voice rose in volume. The bell drowned the rest of what she had to say.

Sirius jumped and looked around him. The tail ends of Peter's robes were disappearing into the classroom. "Oh, great. Now we're late."

"There's no 'we' about it." Rae mumbled, hurrying into the classroom. Sirius was on her heels.

Well... I apologize for the long wait, my dears. I've been through quite an ordeal with this god-forsaken story. Don't worry - I'm not abandoning it. You see, my grandma's laptop deleted the story from my disk. It upset me, needless to say. I'm just glad that I wasn't so far ahead that it would seriously screw with my plans. Only two scenes were lost - the rest of it I was able to find in archives online and save to disk. I'm trying to look at it in a positive light - the higher beings didn't like it and said "You can do better than that" and -BAM! -in a flash of light and a blink of the computer screen, it was gone. So... Yeah... Nothing else has changed - I still appreciate reviews and I'm still going to thank those of you who actually took the time to review. It warms my stone-cold heart to see people that actually CARE about my story. sniff sniff