30th May 1993
Alex woke up later in the day, missing breakfast completely, feeling a heavy weight on her chest.
"...The sun issss high..." hissed the snake, coming to curl around her shoulders. "...I am hungryyy..."
"...We can head outssside after I'm ready..." she replied "I'm not feeling very hungry right now."
Alexandra showered quickly and got dressed, the rest of her dorm mates having left the room already.
Despite taking two showers in the span of ten hours she swore she could still smell the blood on her. Somehow that made her feel extremely guilty, despite the fact that Harry would be fine.
She set off to the courtyard, ignoring the gasps from the students around her as they took in the serpent slithering beside her.
"...Now about that name-" she started, but paused after she saw Mr. Malfoy standing with the Headmaster, Dobby in tow. From the looks of it, they were in the midst of a heated argument. Well, at least Lucius was.
"Good afternoon Mr. Malfoy," greeted Alexandra, walking closer to the scene. "The weather's truly lovely today isn't it?"
He ignored her, continuing to shout at Professor Dumbledore. "So — have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"
"Actually, we have." she cut in forcefully. "Same person as last year really; Voldemort."
She knew it was a tricky game to play, referring to the dark lord by his name, in front of a (former) Death Eater. Where was all this bravado coming from? Maybe she'd need a trip to the hospital wing.
"Indeed," said Professor Dumbledore, "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."
He picked up the diary, looking him straight in the eye.
"A genius plan- really- because if the children had not discovered the book, Miss Weasley would have had to take all the blame. No one could ever prove she didn't do it out of her free will."
The men looked each other in the eye. Mr. Malfoy sneered.
"Are you suggesting I had something to do with it?" he scoffed.
"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then. . . . The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pure-blood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggle-borns. . . .Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise. . . ."
Dobby, standing behind his master, was alternatively pointing at the diary then at Lucius and then hitting himself violently over the head.
A lightbulb clicked.
"I would want to know how Ginny came to have the diary in the first place, I don't remember her ever mentioning a diary before our trip to the book store." she remarked, nonchalantly.
"How dare you-"
"I'm not saying you did it Mr. Malfoy, merely that there must have been someone who put the book with the rest of her school books. Someone who perhaps didn't like the Weasleys. Anyways, this is all a useless theory. I suppose we'll never truly know."
"I suppose not," he said icily, turning on his heel. "We're leaving, Dobby!"
Dobby looked teary, with his huge ugly eyes as Mr. Malfoy practically kicked him through the door.
Alex felt sorry, but it wasn't her place to speak. The elf belonged to the Malfoys, not her.
Her viper snapped hungrily at her ankle.
"...Getting very... ssss. impatient..." he hissed.
"....Well we're off now! Just one more minute... please..."
"Good morning Alexandra, I see you've missed breakfast?"
"Good morning Professor," she greeted, not meeting his eyes. "I wasn't really hungry, I hate to cut this short but um... the snake's getting hungry. Er- Bye!"
She scurried away without one glance backwards, missing Harry confronting the Malfoy Patriarch at the end of the hall. If she'd have looked, she'd have seen Harry put a scourgified sock into the diary.
Her viper was unfortunately slowing her pace down slightly as he was wrapped around her ankle like an anchor. They made their way beside the black lake, where the giant squid let out another spurt of ink.
Alex let the snake go, free to roam for insects and worms.
"...inssssectssss and wormssss only..." she hissed.
"AAAAH!" came a feminine shout. "SNAKE!"
Oh shite.
"HE'S FRIENDLY!" she yelled back, "MINE!"
"Since when do you have a snake?" asked a blond boy trembling, walking over, carefully avoiding the feeding snake.
"Since always," lied Alex, "I picked him up at the zoo."
"The zoo?"
"Yeah."
"I don't remember snakes being on the list of acceptable pets."
"I have my ways."
He put a hand on hers, "Stop scratching, your skin's gone red."
She hadn't noticed, but her hands were stinging painfully, skin peeling off in patches.
"So what happened? I saw the she-weasel roaming around the school this morning. Like, not a ghost. Wasn't she supposed to be- you know- dead?"
"That's none of your business."
"Well, you were missing at lunch and dinner and as your friend-"
"ALEX!" shouted a blur of red as she tripped onto the older girl.
"Hi Ginny," she smiled, patting her awkwardly on the head. Draco scoffed and left, making sure to leave a good couple of meters between himself and her reptilian pet. Alex felt a little guilty, about sending Draco away so rudely, but she felt even guiltier for ignoring Ginny the entire year. She knew she had her friends, but maybe, maybe, if she'd have paid a little more attention, Ginny wouldn't have been so close to death.
After all the Weasley's kindness, that would be a shite way to repay them, killing their only daughter.
"How're you feeling?"
Ginny laughed, a little hysterically, "Oh I'm PERFECT! This calming draught is really good," she giggled, laying on her lap, the freckles under her eyes highlighted by errant summer rays that poked through the tree Alex was sat under.
How much potion had they given her?
The viper sidled up to her protectively, hearing Ginny's maniacally hysterical voice.
"Ooooh," she whispered, as if sharing a secret, "Who's this?"
"This is... er-"
"...Who isssss thisss? Friend?..."
"Yesss... friend... um... can I call you Rex?"
"...It isssss... acceptable..."
The snake had barely hissed the last syllable when Alex let out a whoop of delight. Ginny, in her hazy, drugged state, nearly rolled into the lake, as she was flung off.
"GINNY!" shrieked Alex, grabbing onto the end of her leg, her little head barely an inch above the water.
"You know I've been wondering-"
"Not now! Your face is turning purple!"
"-How come you didn't know Harry existed? How come he has to live with muggles while you were allowed to live in the wizarding world?"
Alex almost dropped Ginny in surprise.
"That's not a bad question," she muttered, pulling Ginny up. She gave her forehead a quick peck, setting the now sleepy girl beside the tree, securely.
She had a very important question to ask.