Chapter 2 – Serpent's Daughter

"Malfoy, I'd like you to meet my father, Professor Severus Snape" I smirked. Draco looked like he would pass out from the shock.
"Go back to your dormitory Malfoy. I have some things to discuss with my daughter" Snape instructed, and Malfoy quickly left. When I turned to face my father again, I could tell he wasn't happy.
"Hi Daddy" I smiled innocently, but he just glared, making me shrink back.
"What do you think you were doing? Dueling is forbidden. And doing it out in the open, you would have been expelled. I can't prevent expulsion when you pick fights with other students, Hope. You need to do better" he told me, his voice stern but protective. I nodded sheepishly and he rested a hand on my shoulder. "You hit the wall pretty hard, did you need to see the nurse" he asked, but I shook my head.
"I'm fine."
"I lost your mother, Hope. I need you to be more careful…and stay away from Malfoy, he's trouble." Snape walked me back to my dorm and I immediately ran to the bed and grabbed Bunny, holding him close until I calmed down. I was angry with Draco for being an arrogant jerk and my father basically sent me to my room. All I did was defend myself, I was more injured out of me and that slimy snake. I was sure he wouldn't actually tell his father that a girl had bested him, especially a half-blood girl. I took a deep breath and sat Bunny back in my bag before going back to the common room with my homework.

The months passed and it was school as usual. I was excelling at charms and of course potions, but I was only good at potions because my father was also my teacher. He only other class I was doing well with was transfiguration, in which I had started studying Animagus; a third-year course. I had been looking into it purely out of curiosity, Professor McGonagall could turn into a cat, and I wanted to be able to change into an animal so I could go and explore the castle without a certain blond serpent getting in my way. I was wandering through the halls on my way back from my secret spot in the courtyard when I head Professor McGonagall.
"Good evening" she said to someone. I quickly stepped back into the shadows of the corridor and peeked out to see who was there. Harry, Ron and Hermione were caught out after curfew. I jumped back with a gasp when I noticed Draco had spotted me.
"Hope is just down there too Professor" Draco told her, pointing me out. She looked towards my hiding place and sighed softly.
"Miss Murphy, please come inside" she told me, and I stepped into the light and glared at Draco. Once inside the room Professor McGonagall looked over each of us.
"I'm sorry, I was studying outside and I lost track of time" I quickly apologized but the Professor raised her hand to silence me, and I lowered my head to stare at my feet.
"Nothing. I repeat; nothing, gives a student the right to walk about the school at night. Therefore, as punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken" Professor McGonagall told us all. My jaw dropped.
"Fifty" Harry asked in shock.
"Each" the Professor confirmed. I looked to Draco again who had a smug grin on his face. "And to ensure it doesn't happen again, all five of you will receive detention."
"But Professor, with due respect-" I started but she waved me off again.
"Excuse me Professor, perhaps I heard you wrong. I thought you said the five of us" Draco asked in confusion as he stepped up to her desk.
"No you heard me correctly Mr. Malfoy. You see, as honorable as your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention" she advised him. Draco looked to the four of us and grimaced. I could tell he was hating this, his plan to get Harry, Ron, Hermione and I into trouble had backfired. I held back a laugh but couldn't quite bite back the smile. Now he was stuck with us for detention.
"May I be excused" I asked the Professor, and she nodded.
"Teacher's pet" I heard Malfoy grumble in my direction, so I did the most mature thing I could think of – I poked my tongue out at him and then kept walking back to the corridor to find my father.

I knew it would be better for my father to find out from me that I had detention than to find out from Professor McGonagall. I wandered through the halls until I saw Professor Quirrell talking to himself in the corridor. I took a step back and flattened my back against the wall behind a pillar.
"Snape knows. He knows, and he will protect the Potter boy" he said.
"Someone's here" another more muffled voice said. I forced my back closer to the wall and held my breath, waiting to be found. There was a shuffle of feet and then silence, I peered around the corner and Professor Quirrell was gone. I let out the breath I didn't realise I'd been holding and continued to my father's office. When I finally got there, the door was slightly ajar.
"Dad" I called out softly, slowly pushing the door open. He was fast asleep with his head on the desk. His soft snoring was blowing some of the pages closer to the edge of his desk and there were a few pages that was already on the floor. I closed the door behind me and tiptoed to the desk, picking up the pages and tidying up the lose pages on the desk before sitting his half-empty cup of tea on top to prevent them moving again. "Dad" I tried again, resting my hand on his shoulder. His eyes slowly opened and he smiled when he realised it was me.
"Hope, what are you doing up" he asked, sitting up.
"I wanted to let you know that I got detention. I was studying outside and was out past curfew. Professor McGonagall caught me" I explained. "Well, technically Malfoy caught me. I was walking back to my dorm and hid in the hallway when I saw that Harry and his friends were caught, but Malfoy dobbed me in" I continued. "He's such a slimy little snake" I grumbled, mainly to myself.
"If you're already in trouble, then you should probably go back to the dorm before any other teachers see you" he warned as he stood up. "I'll walk you back."

The next night we had detention and Mr. Filch was the one to lead us to Hagrid's, where we would be serving our time.
"A pity they let the old punishments die. There was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons. God, I miss the screaming" Mr. Filch told us. I gulped and looked to Ron who looked just as scared as me. It was a short and quiet trip to Hagrid's hut except for Mr. Filch's stories about the old punishments. I was glad they didn't exist anymore, I would not have done well hanging by my thumbs. "You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight. He's got a little job to do, inside the dark forest" Mr. Filch told us before turning his attention to Hagrid. "A sorry lot this Hagrid." Hagrid was silent. "Oh good God man, you're not still going on about that bloody dragon, are you?" Hagrid sniffled and then sighed.
"Norbert's gone. Dumbledore sent him off to Romania to live in the colony" Hagrid explained.
"Well that's good isn't it? He'll be with his own kind" Hermione spoke up.
"Yeah, but what if he don't like Romania? What if the other dragons are mean to him? He's only a baby after all" Hagrid told us. I could see he was upset, he clearly loved this dragon. I stepped forward and settled my hand on Hagrid's arm, making him smile.
"Oh for God's sake man, pull yourself together, you're going into the forest after all" Mr. Filch snapped. "Got to have your wits about you."
"The forest? I thought that was a joke" Draco asked Mr. Filch. "We can't go in there. Students aren't allowed. And there are…werewolves" Draco continued. I smiled at him.
"Oh there's more than werewolves in those trees lad. You can be sure of that" Mr. Filch warned before turning back towards the school. "Nighty night." I looked between Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco and then to Hagrid. I felt safer with Hagrid around these woods, he knew them best.
"Right" Hagrid said, "let's go."

We followed Hagrid into the woods with Fang until we reached a pool of silver blood.
"Hagrid, what is that" I asked, not really wanting to know. I was scared, the constant howling, the darkness, the fact that the school bully was walking directly behind me. Draco had been trying to both trip me over and scare me the entire walk so far, and it was driving me closer and closer to sucker-punching him in the face.
"It's what we're here for. You see that" he asked, showing the silver dripping from his fingers. "That's unicorn blood that is. I found one dead a few weeks ago, and this one's been hurt bad by something" Hagrid explained. We all looked around into the darkness, trying to see what could have hurt the creature in question. "So, it's our job to go and find the poor beast" Hagrid continued, referring to the injured unicorn. "Ron, Hermione you'll come with me" Hagrid said.
"Okay" Ron said quietly with a gulp.
"And Harry, you'll go with Malfoy and Hope" Hagrid told us. I sighed and looked to Harry, hoping Draco wouldn't be too much of a pest.
"Okay, then I get Fang" Draco insisted. I looked to the overgrown dog and smiled, having Fang in our group did make me feel a little safer than being alone with Draco and Harry.
"Fine, then just so you know; he's a bloody coward" Hagrid told us, making my calm disappear again. Great, I was with the school bully, a cowardly overgrown dog, and the boy who lived, what a great group. I would've rather been with the half-giant, the genius and the ginger.

Harry, Draco, Fang and I walked through the woods with Draco leading the way.
"Wait until my father hears about this, this is servant stuff" Draco complained.
"If I didn't know better, Draco, I'd day you were scared" Harry told him, making me snicker. Draco lowered the lantern.
"Scared, Potter-" Draco started but stopped when we heard a howl. "Did you hear that" Draco asked, turning back to us.
"Come on Fang" I called as we continued to walk.
"Scared" Draco grumbled under his breath. I smiled and stepped to the side to pick up a twig and tapped Draco's shoulder, making him jump. I quickly threw the twig away and snickered.
"Scared Malfoy" I asked teasingly, and he just glowered at me before he turned back to the woods ahead.
"I'm not scared" he insisted. "I'm braver than a little Hufflepuff like you, I've seen you jumping at every little sound" he told me. I opened my mouth to make a comment but Fang started to growl.
"What is it Fang" Harry asked. We all looked ahead to see someone or something hovering over the unicorn. Harry suddenly reached at his scar, and the thing looked up. Draco screamed and ran, with me not too far behind him and Fang followed after us. We soon bumped into Ron, Hermione and Hagrid and led them back to where Harry was still standing.
"You screamed like a girl" I told Draco, smiling.
"So did you" he snarled back at me.
"I am a girl" I reminded him. "What's you excuse?"
"Shut up" he grumbled, turning back to follow the rest of the group.

A/N – Thank you to those that have read/followed/reviewed the story so far. I'm excited to hurry up and get to the Order of the Phoenix because I have so many ideas. I'm having fun writing little snips of Draco and Hope bickering, it's pretty fun. I hope you're enjoying reading as much as I am enjoying writing. It' been fun to get back into after years of battling depression and anxiety and thinking my writing isn't good enough