Lunch was a fairly quiet ordeal.
Raven and Nellie met up with Tessa and Cassie in the Great Hall and they talked about their previous lessons whilst they dug into their lunch at the Ravenclaw table. Tessa and Cassie were particularly interested in the fact that a Bowtruckle was sitting on Raven's shoulder and playing with a strand of her platinum blonde hair.
"It's so cute!" said Tessa.
"Her name is Pix..."
"Awww!" Tessa reached over the table to touch Pix but Raven quickly moved out of the way.
"I wouldn't try to touch her, Tessa. Pix does not know you yet and she has very sharp fingers. Trust me, you do not want to be on the receiving end of her anger." Nellie warned her friend.
"Don't worry, I'm sure Pix will warm up to all of you soon," Raven said with a smile and allowed Pix to climb onto her pointer finger so she could place her down on the wooden table.
Pix scattered across the table and peered into a bowl full of food. She looked up at Raven and back at the bowl again. Raven realised with a start that the Bowtruckle must be hungry. The only problem was Bowtruckles usually ate woodlice or other insects like aphids and there certainly weren't any of those lying around.
Raven turned to the three Ravenclaw girls. "I think Pix is hungry but I don't know where to get her food."
"What is she supposed to eat?" asked Cassie, then placed her fork full of food into her mouth, accidentally hitting her glasses as she did.
"Bowtruckles love woodlice but they'll eat pretty much any type of insect."
"What about in the potions classroom? Surely Professor Snape has some spare insects you can have." Nellie said, still brushing pieces of snow out of her brown hair from their time outside.
"You'll definitely find Pix something to eat in there. There's always some creepy little things in jars in that classroom." Tessa screwed her face up in disgust.
Raven nodded her head. She hadn't had a potions lesson at Hogwarts yet, but if it was any similar to Snape's office, she did not doubt that there were hundreds of jars of ingredients scattered all over that room too.
Raven quickly ate the rest of her lunch, carefully placed Pix back on her shoulder and headed out of the Great Hall with a wave in the direction of the three girls. Just as she was about to go down a set of stairs into the dungeons, she heard Draco shout after her.
"Rae, wait up! I thought we... Is that a Bowtruckle?"
"Yep," Raven said noncommittally and continued down the steps. Draco paused momentarily, staring at the back of his sister's blonde head in wonder, then followed after her.
"I thought we were going to go for a walk in the snow." He said, almost tripping on a trick step.
"I just need to get Pix some food and then we can go," Raven replied.
Draco stared at her, confused.
"Who's Pix?" He asked.
Raven chuckled at her twin and gestured to the Bowtruckle who was trying to hide behind her ear.
"Ohh!" Realisation washed over Draco's face.
They reached Snape's office door and Raven hesitated for a second. Only a few hours ago she had been there, crying her eyes out because of Cassius. She stopped herself from carrying on with that thought and put it to the back of her mind. He was the last person she wanted to think about right now.
Raven blinked and turned to Draco.
"You can wait out here if you like," She said to her brother.
"Okay." Draco leaned against the stone wall of the corridor, crossing his arms over his chest and twisting his wand in one of his hands.
Raven approached the office door and knocked lightly on the wood. Seconds later, it swung open and she saw Snape sat at his desk, wand in hand, glaring directly at her.
"In," Snape said curtly and Raven rolled her eyes, purposely walking inside the room as slowly as possible. The door slammed shut behind her, missing her by a mere couple of centimetres.
"What do you want? The time I have during lunch is very valuable to me and I do not wish to spend it with a student."
"Lovely as ever," Raven remarked. Snape sneered at her sarcastic tone.
"I was just wondering if you had any spare woodlice or aphids that I could have?" Raven asked.
Snape raised an eyebrow when he spotted Pix appear from behind Raven's ear, and surprisingly he didn't make any accusing comment.
The Potions Master stood up from his desk and walked through a door she hadn't seen before, into what she assumed was the potions classroom. He appeared a few moments later carrying a fairly large jar in his hands.
"It just so happens that I do have some woodlice to spare." He said matter-of-factly. "However, before I give it to you, I would like to know where you acquired a Bowtruckle in the few hours since you were last in my presence."
Ah, there it was. The accusing comment. Raven rolled her eyes once again.
"If you must know, I just had a Care of Magical Creatures class. We were tasked with attempting to befriend Bowtruckles and I obviously made a good first impression because Pix here decided to trust me. Is there something wrong with that, Professor?"
"Your tone is not appreciated, Raven." Snape's voice was stern but his eyes questioningly followed Pix as she wandered over Raven's shoulders and played with her hair.
"I was merely curious. It is rare that meddlesome students," He looked pointedly at Raven, "are befriended by Bowtruckles."
Snape stared down at the Ravenclaw for a few seconds then reluctantly held out the jar of woodlice. Raven felt Pix's excitement at the sight of her food and she had to hold back a laugh so she wouldn't hurt the Bowtruckle's feelings; they were especially sensitive creatures.
"Thank you," Raven said and took the jar from the Potions Master.
Snape gave a curt nod and returned to sit at his desk.
"I expect you to come to my office ten minutes before your Potion class this afternoon. I have some things I need to discuss with you." He announced and Raven sighed before grudgingly agreeing and leaving the office.
Draco was stood in the exact place she left him, still twirling his wand between his fingers.
"So how'd it go?" He asked as the two walked together back up the stairs and towards the Entrance Hall.
"Fine. I got Pix's food, although Snape was in a bit of a mood because I interrupted his precious time away from us horrible students." Raven joked and waved the jar of woodlice in front of her brother's face. He gagged when he saw hundreds of woodlice squirming around inside the jar.
Pix poked at Raven with one of her razor-like fingers.
"I'll give you some as soon as we get outside, Pix, I promise."
Pix sat down in Raven's shoulder and crossed her arms with a pout. Raven chuckled at Pix's huffs of annoyance.
By the time the two Malfoys had reached outside, the snow on the ground was considerably higher than it was before. In the distance, Raven saw several students playing in the snow. Some were throwing snowballs at each other and others were building snowmen and enchanting them to come to life.
The twins ventured out into the grounds of Hogwarts, Draco leading the way since it was only Raven's second full day at the school and she had no idea where she was going. They stopped in front of a huge tree that was thrashing around in the wind as if it was trying to shake the snow off its branches.
"This is the Whomping Willow," Draco explained as he immobilised it so they could sit underneath without being attacked by bark. "Nobody really likes to come around here because it tends to throttle you if you don't stun it quickly enough."
Raven drew her wand out of her sleeve, cleared away some of the snow and sat down on the grass, opening the jar to feed Pix. The Bowtruckle wasted no time and clumsily clambered down Raven's arm to stand in front her, eagerly watching the girl tip a few woodlice into her hand and hold it out to her.
As Raven fed Pix, Draco joined her on the ground and gave her a sympathetic look. Neither of them said anything for a long moment.
"Rae, I'm sorry that I didn't make the connection between the man in your photo and Professor Stagburn. Then I could've at least given you a warning." Draco said quietly.
Raven stilled, startled by her brother's bluntness, even though he was blunt about almost everything he said and, usually, had no qualms in bringing up difficult subjects. Draco was always there to talk to when she needed him the most. He was a very supportive brother.
"It's not your fault Draco. You didn't know."
Draco inched closer to her and gently took Raven's free hand in his. Raven looked up into his grey eyes that were the mirror image of hers.
"Rae, what happened with Professor Stagburn in France? How do you know him?" Draco's voice was soft and calming.
"I..." She swallowed back a sob and took a deep breath. Now was a great a time as any to tell her brother the truth.
"At Beauxbatons, my... my best friend, Felix, was the only person I truly trusted. We had each other's backs and eventually it turned into something more. He helped me through so many things. I... Draco, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about what I'm about to say."
"Okay. I promise." He said and squeezed his sister's hand in reassurance. Raven swallowed again nervously.
"There are a group of people who... who are after me."
"After you? What do you mean?" Draco asked, a rush of concern flooding him.
"They think I have some... some unusual powers that they want. Apparently, there's a ritual, or something like that, where they can take that power for themselves."
"Merlin!" whispered Draco. "Where does Professor Stagburn fit into this?" He added a second later.
"Cassius was my friend too. I never fully trusted him like I did Felix, but I did trust him. I met him when he was in his third year and I was in my first. He helped Felix and me with some schoolwork and then, we just kept hanging out. But... in October, the group who are trying to kidnap me made another attempt. Cassius sold me out to them."
A sob broke free from Raven's mouth. Draco wrapped an arm around her shoulders and Pix grabbed onto Raven's finger, hugging it tightly, the woodlice and her hunger completely forgotten.
"Felix was trying to protect me and he went after them. They murdered him, Draco! Cassius was there. He could have stopped Felix from going, but he didn't. He let Felix walk right to his death." The tears were flowing freely now, running down Raven's cheeks and splashing onto the grass around her.
"I went after Felix but he was already gone. This necklace is the only thing I have left of him." She reached into her shirt and pulled out a silver chain with a dragon pendant attached to it.
"It's beautiful, Raven," Draco said.
"I think I know why the group are coming after me now. After I took this necklace from Felix, Cassius was there and I was so angry, angrier than I've ever been before. I lost control of my magic and, even though I didn't use my wand, a beam of fire erupted out of me and into the sky. I think I've always had this power, and the dragon necklace... unlocked it in me."
Raven sobered and wiped at her eyes.
"For a few months I managed to control it but I finally snapped about a week ago and almost burnt down half of Beauxbatons. That's the real reason I was expelled from there. Everyone still believes that it was a prank gone wrong, or something of that nature, but it wasn't. Not even our parents know the full truth."
"I'm so sorry that you had to go through that, Raven," Draco said, hurriedly pulling his sister into another hug, rubbing her back in comfort.
Raven sniffed and wrapped her arms tightly around her brother's body. When she eventually pulled back, Raven noticed Pix's attention had returned to her hunger and she was trying to climb into the jar of woodlice.
"I think you've had enough Pix!" She laughed and placed the lid back on the jar.
Pix's eyes widened as she looked behind Raven and she darted behind the jar.
All of a sudden, a freezing cold snowball hit Raven's back and she spun around to see Draco a few metres away from her, wheezing from laughter. Raven wasted no time in piling a bunch of snow into her hands and aiming straight for her brother's face. It hit him directly in the centre of his face and Raven smugly watched him shake the snow from his hair in outrage.
If anything could be said about the Malfoy twins, it was that they would never miss a chance at a snowball fight. And so, they spent the rest of lunch chasing after one another and hurtling pieces of snow through the air, trying to knock the other over. Even Pix tried to help by pushing snow together on the ground so Raven could easily pick it up.
By the time she had to go back to Snape's office, Raven's hands were frozen and purple but she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. Draco now knew what had happened between her and Cassius which meant that she didn't have to deal with this alone anymore. He was going to help her get through this no matter what. Raven had no doubt about that.
A/N Reviews, Follows and Favourites are very much appreciated and I'd love to hear how you think I can improve my story!