"You want me to what!?" I exclaimed, glaring at Jenny across the table.
"Shhh, keep it down Tony, do you want you-know-who to find out about everything?"
I slammed a hand over my mouth, and risked a glance at the men in question. Both seemed uninterested in everything around them, adopting bored sneers and eye rolling at their Housemates antics. The Great Hall was filled with students; everybody seemed particularly rowdy today, probably had something to do with the Hogsmeade trip planned for tomorrow.
"Now," Jenny leaned closer, "we need my brother in on this."
"Why, I don't want him involved in this, he might get hurt." My worry wasn't only for his safety, but his future. "Plus having him steal books isn't the greatest way to help his career."
She flicked a hand, dismissing the worry. "He hates that job anyway; they won't let him transfer to healing because he is too damned good at smoozing money from rich, old benefactors. Let him help us, Tony, he is worried about you."
I supposed he had a right, Jenny and I had been so wrapped in studying up on mythical creatures and legends for the last few weeks, I had been forgetting to reply to his Owls.
"Look, I'm not saying we involve him in the fright storm that is the Head Boy and his butt-buddy, but he would appreciate at least feeling included."
Sighing, I knew she had a point; I had been a shitty girlfriend lately and certainly didn't deserve somebody as lovely as Jeremy. "Ok, but he doesn't get to know our suspicions about my heritage."
"Deal," she smiled smugly, "I'll send an Owl asking for the books this afternoon."
The books were rather obscure texts that investigated the legends surrounding Veela (we knew I wasn't one, but they did have some interesting characteristics I shared), Nymphs and Succubi. All of the above creatures were the only ones we couldn't find a great deal of information on; we wanted to read the books to narrow the possibilities of my heritage.
I had written a letter to my mother asking about Grand'Mere and her 'gifts', but I never received a reply. This wasn't a surprise, whenever I bought up the woman who helped raise me; mother froze up and refused to leave her room for a few days.
The morning chime rang out, a first warning to finish up and move onto classes. Today was just another day Jenny and I didn't have classes together, and I did have them with people who hated and hunted me.
For the past three weeks I had nearly run into my two tormentors everywhere outside of class, I might have thought they were following me but they were almost always in a group or with some girl hanging off of them. I had received a rather nasty pus hex off Parkinson, when I accidentally walked into her and Malfoy when they were necking around a corner. I had tried to point out that in plain view and in the direct path of students wasn't the best place to neck-on, but that had only made Malfoy laugh, a deep sound that caused a scary shiver down my spine. From then on I had taken to making wide spaces around corners, and good thing to because the next day I walked past Malfoy once again necking on with a blond Ravenclaw in the same spot. He just smirked at me as I passed. I didn't see him there again.
"Wake up," Jenny clicked her fingers in front of my face. "Second bell went; you're going to be late for class."
Cursing I looked around; almost all the students were gone. Grabbing my bag up, I ran for the exit, nearly tripping up twice in my haste. I had learned long ago the quickest way to potions class, utilizing this knowledge I had nearly made it to the last two steps down there when my feet slipped up and I landed hard at the bottom of the landing. My knees scraped on the ground, but my hands took the blunt of the fall, skin ripping off.
Hissing, I cradled my hands, they looked like somebody had taken a cheese grater to them.
"Watch where you're going, Mudbitch." Snarled a winy voice, Parkinson stepped over my prone form, her lackeys following. Gideon Blacks sister Wallubra kicked my side; I didn't really feel it over the sting in my hands.
"Filthy creature," Wallubra was barely fourteen years old; it broke my heart to see so much hate in somebody so young.
Rather than stay and plague me for my clumsiness, they stormed off up the stairs and to their classes. Only once they were gone did I drag myself up, I grabbed my wand out and cleaned my hands as best I could. Pocketing the wand, that still felt wrong after Malfoy finally retuned it after a week of me trying to explain the loss of it to my teachers. It hurt me that most of them simply smiled at me like I was a simpleton and patted me on the head saying, 'not like it will change much'. That had made the students laugh even more.
I walked into the potions classroom; it always seemed far too bright in here to be in the dungeon. But then Professor Slughorn was quite a jovial man considering he was the Head of the Slytherin house. When he saw me he waved me to my seat, noticing my bloody hands and legs.
"Oh no, Miss Zima, fall over again?" the class tittered as I took my seat, "Never mind, just get your partner to cast a healing and cleaning spell." He was probably right to get my 'partner' to help me.
I silently took my seat next to Riddle; he smiled at me (for the benefit of the Professor) and held out his hand. Hesitantly I lay mine in it, curling warmth came from out joined limbs and I realized that this was the first time he had ever touched my skin. Looking at his face I saw him frown at the connection, probably regretting that he had to touch me. But without saying a word Riddle waved his wand over the half-healed mess I had made of them, totally cleansing them of blood. He did the same on the other hand, releasing me as quickly as possible.
"Excellent display of non-verbal spells, Tom, ten points to Slytherin. And Miss Zima, do try to be more careful when walking the stairs, they move remember." All the teachers treated me with patronizing kindness (except Professor Dumbledore), not actually realizing that they were insulting my intelligence.
"Yes, Professor," I replied, staring at my partially healed hands.
"Good girl, now, today we are brewing the potion known to replenish blood loss. Madam Jolly has been running out," he gave me a pointed stare and smile, "Please follow the directions to the letter."
Waving his wand at the blackboard, words started appearing. Before I could make heads or tails of it Riddle was already dragging me to the store room, this time making sure not to touch my skin.
"I wasn't done reading that."
He gave an annoyed snort, "If I wait for you I will never get this potion finished." Shoving me inside he closed the door behind him, for a second I felt trapped, but then remembered the students just outside the thin wood.
Riddle stared at me for a moment, then at my knees. Rolling his eyes he hunched down in front of me, I jumped back nearly to the other side of the room.
"What are you doing!?" I squeaked, unable to shift back further as he moved down in front of me again.
"I can practically smell the blood coming from your knees. And disgusting though it is, I have to be at least this close to heal you, otherwise you might contaminate the potion." He gripped the bottom of my knee length skirt and drew it up; I was in too much shock to stop him. "Hold this," automatically I took the skirts, "why didn't you heal your knees… or do whatever it is you call healing."
He meant my botch job with my hands; I didn't think I had done too bad considering. "I—I only had enough magic to fix one thing."
Snorting Riddle turned my palm so he could see it, "You call this healing?" he ran a finger along the skin that would certainly scar. "Now, don't move."
Once again he brought out his wand. I concentrated on the warmth of where our skin met, taking advantage of the distraction.
"Oculous healios", I felt only a small twinge and knew I was healed, probably looked like nothing had ever happened. Riddle moved to the other knee, doing the same with the same clean result.
"Thanks," I mumbled dropping my skirt back into place.
Riddle sneered at me as he stood, gripping the front of my shirt and shoving me against a bookcase. The jars of ingredients threatened to fall, but thankfully didn't. "Don't mistake this for any kindness towards you, you're nothing." He released me. Moving over to the shelf he started passing me ingredients, I took them without question. Riddle was easier to deal with when he was the one hurting me, not healing me. Forcing me to hold everything, he stormed out of the cupboard as other students started coming in. Some gave me strange looks, most of the girls just glared; ignoring all I plonked back down on my chair and put the ingredients into nice little piles. Next to me the Head Boy was fuming over a boiling cauldron, occasionally stirring.
This was the part I loved in Potions class, I could always tell which plants or herbs I had helped grow. Just by touching them I felt more connected with the nature around me, almost like I was out in some forest, and not stuck beneath the ground in a dank room with a psychotic 'partner'. Out of this batch I could sense my care in the flaxseed, moon root and blood bark. Rather than go into the forest to collect it, Professor Catti had us grow our own miniature Blood Trees and harvest them. For some reason my miniature turned into a giant tree, and was now a permanent fixture just outside the Gamekeepers cottage. The young Gamekeeper Hagrid, who I still felt horribly guilty about every time I saw him, was especially fond of the tree. He watered it often; I didn't have the heart to tell him it didn't feed off water, but moonlight.
"Blood Bark," Riddle held out his hand, so I have him it. He growled when he got it, "You're supposed to strip it."
"I didn't want to hurt it." There wasn't any point in hiding my connection to wildlife and plants from him, it just made Riddle angrier at me.
Scoffing he stripped it himself, I blocked out the screaming I heard when he plopped it into the cauldron. I would have probably been good at potions had I not hated hurting the plants, it was just too much for me and everybody knew it. In my first year I had gone into a fit, tipping over every cauldron, trying to save the screaming plants.
Since then Professor Slughorn had made sure I had nothing to do with the actual brewing, just the collecting and the organising. He let me pass mostly out of pity.
"Just, sit." He pointed to my chair; I took the seat without argument, happy to not have to hurt anything directly. "So what have you found out?"
Startled I looked up at Riddle, he seemed pretty interested in the potion, but I could practically feel how tuned into our conversation he was.
"Nothing," I mumbled, suddenly fascinated with my fingernails. Riddle hadn't questioned me on my heritage since that day with the Unicorn; he hadn't even punished me for freeing it yet.
"Liar. You think we don't have people in Hufflepuff, those who want more than to become broodmares for the Pureblood's beliefs? They will eventually do their duty, but for the moment they are mine to command and then their husbands will command them to do my will regardless in the end."
"You're a monster." Hissing I turned from him, glaring at the blackboard. "And I will never tell you anything."
"No matter, I don't need you to tell me, your boyfriend will." He spat out the word, like the idea of me and Jeremy was abhorrent to him.
I turned back to Riddle, "Jeremy would never help you! He is good and kind, everything you are not."
Our seating arrangements were to the far left, so nobody could really see what we were doing and Professor Slughorn was busy eating something yellow in his chair.
Arrogantly, the Head Boy stared down at me, for a second I cursed my short stature. "Jeremy Bones is weak, and what do weak men do?" he waited a second, "they follow the strong."
"He isn't weak." I tried to sound strong, but doubt wavered in my voice. What if Jeremy was helping Riddle, and we had just asked him for the three things that could help me figure out what I was…
Riddle chuckled, adding the last ingredient and stirring confidently, not even needing to watch. "I suppose we will find out in the next few days who Jeremy is loyal to, who he will send the books to."
I looked like a gaping fish for a moment, exactly how long had Riddle been allowing Jenny and I to do the grunt work and eliminate possible creature after possible creature. While all the while he watched from the sidelines?
"Don't worry though, Zima, I'm sure Jeremy will send you a sweet letter about how he misses you and longs to move back to England. And then a quick little sidenote about how he couldn't find the books, and hopes you find what you are looking for." He smiled an evil smile, "don't be sad though. I'll be sure to tell you what lies dormant in your blood, after I decide if it's useful or not to me."
With that Riddle bottled up the potion and handed it over to Professor at the front of the classroom. He walked back and started packing up his books, not honouring me with even a glance.
"See you in the library before dinner; it's time to work on the project for Care of Magical Creatures. I am so very curious to figure out exactly how a unicorn escaped its bonds without assistance. Oh, and enjoy Defence against the Dark Arts with Malfoy."
