A/N: Hello to everyone. First of all thank you very much for taking time and reading this fic. Also, thanks to everyone who have added the fic to their following/favourite story. It means a lot. Here is the next chapter for you awesome guys. I hope you all enjoy it! Happy reading.
I don't own Harry Potter, it solely belongs to J.K. Rowling!
CHAPTER 7
Someone's nudging brought Harriet out of her fantasy world, and she raised her eyes from the pages in front of her only to be met by Sarah's amused smile.
"Good morning, Miss Fawley."
"Good morning, Harriet. I'm sorry to interrupt you but it's time for our classes." Harriet glanced at the grandfather clock hanging above the fireplace and sure enough if displayed 9:45. She hadn't realised that she spent almost two hours reading.
Her day had started pretty well, considering the fact that she got full 7 hours of necessary sleep, which was a rare occasion. That accompanied with the long, hot shower that soothed her aching muscles, cheered her up well for the upcoming day. The scars littering on her body were slowly healing, but they would never truly fade; she didn't mind though, they were a proof that she had fought like a warrior and lived through it.
The commotion in the common room had died down as soon as Harriet step foot in. From last night's event, it was very clear that Miss Christopher isn't someone to be messed with. The silence of the dungeons as compared to Gryffindor's hustle bustle was a nice and welcoming change. She chose to sit in the fluffy armchair by the fireplace with the intention of finishing the book, she has been reading for the last few days.
"You okay, Harriet?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, just got lost there for a moment. Uh...I have to grab my bag from my room."
"Don't worry, I'll wait here and then we can go together." Sarah assured her as Harriet quickly went to retrieve her possessions.
For the next DADA class, students were quite excited; though the new teacher was very strict, he was obviously experienced- both in teaching and the subject. This made the students willing to gain as much knowledge as possible because the record for the last teachers hadn't been the best.
Professor Grey entered the class as gracefully as ever, his eye immediately sorting Harriet's in the crowd. Harriet for her own part met his gaze unflinchingly.
"Good morning, everyone. In last class, we discussed about the Unforgivables in quite a detail. Now as you all know, there might be a war starting very soon and in order to properly teach you defense, I got express permission from the headmaster to teach you on how to block the Imperius Curse." Murmurs broke the silence, as their teacher only smirked in response.
"Now don't be afraid. I want you all to come one by one. I'll cast the curse on you and you will all try to block it. No one will get harmed or anything for that matter." He assured in the most patient tone he could muster. He had gone out of his way to take permission from Dumbledore, just so he could use it on the Christopher girl and get a just of her true abilities; to really see for himself if she was an upcoming danger. Her last night's encounter with the Bloody Baron which Tom had accidentally witnessed, had left him all curious and bothered. Tom had been close, but not close enough to hear their conversation. He wondered all night what about the new girl made the Slytherin house ghost talk when he preferred solitude over anyone's company? What was so special about this Christopher girl that Tom, himself, wasn't able to keep his mind off her. Whatever it may be, he was going to find out very soon.
"Now who would like to try first?" Professor Great asked the dumb faces sitting in front of him. Barty's hand immediately shot up, a little too excited much to Lucius' displeasure.
"Mr Crouch, come forward." As soon as Barty reached in front he asked,
"Ready?" With a nod, Tom cast the spell.
"Imperio"
A warm feeling clouded Barty's mind and suddenly he felt at ease. His expression changed to one of serenity.
"Now, Barty, I want you to jump on the desk and act like a monkey." The voice in his head was so warm, so enticing that he couldn't deny it, so he did as commanded, making an utter fool of himself. Everyone laughed, clearly entertained by the whole scenario, everyone except Harriet. She just watched with an expressionless face. Voldemort was playing a game, one where he was in power and Harriet knew it very well; she refused to be a part of it.
One by one each student was called forward. Bellatrix was able to block the curse for a few moments, but she eventually gave up too. The Black girl's reputation was totally thwarted; first, the new girl refused to bow down to her and instead retaliated. And now the new professor had made her strut like a peacock in front of everyone. She was shooting daggers at Professor Grey for making her look like an imbecile.
At last, it was Harriet's turn; she strolled forward and took a position directly in front of the alpha predator. Not wasting any time, he raised his Yew wand and muttered unhurriedly, "Imperio," but nothing happened. Grey narrowed his eyes when the curse failed, but soon enough there was a glint shining in his blue eyes.
"I want you to lower your Occlumency barriers, Miss Christopher. Try to push the voice inside your head, instead." She stared dumbfounded at the man in front of her. His predatory smirk going wide, knowing full well that she was trapped and there was no way out of the sticky situation, except to obey him. Well shit!
Harriet reluctantly nodded. As soon as her barriers went down, she could feel his emotions- hunger, greed and malice echoed through her mind. He was hunting her, trying to open up his prey and devour all her secrets.
In his mind though, all Tom could feel was the bliss of utter euphoria, utter contentedness. His mind and soul felt more at peace. He was able to feel emotions too, he thought, because he could sense Harriet's nervousness better. For some moments he was lost in the feeling of belonging making him forget about his surroundings, until there was a nudge on his conscious mind. He came back to his senses and knew Harriet was resisting, trying to block him out.
"Dance around the classroom, Miss Christopher," he commanded in a seductive voice; a voice full of lust. But it was wrong, so very wrong. Why would Harrie dance around like a stupid person?
"No." She said defiantly. "No, I won't." The voice echoed again through her mind, this time though, amused and frustrated all at once.
"Spill your secrets, Harriet." Oh no! She couldn't do that. All her plans would fail if she slipped any piece of information.
"NO!" she screamed in her mind and the next moment she was back in the class, standing in front of Professor Grey, his wand still raised, but expression blank on his face. This somehow sacred her a bit.
"Brilliant, Miss Christopher," he said in a monotonous tone.
"30 points to Slytherin for throwing off the Imperius in the first try." Harriet took a shuddering breath, ignored the gaping faces of her fellow classmates and returned to her seat beside Sarah. The brunette was looking at Harriet with a scrutinizing gaze, which made her uncomfortable.
"Now, Miss Christopher did a very good job to block the curseā¦" His voice trailed off, but Harriet did not pay mind to the ongoing lecture anymore. Her thoughts were preoccupied with the fact that Harriet was able to feel the connection to his soul piece better, with each passing day. It was getting extremely difficult to shield her mind every second; she was exhausted from the constant headache.
Voldemort could sense her discomfort and sullenness, and his attention immediately snapped to her.
"What's wrong?" Tom's demanding voice echoed in her mind making her freeze. She avoided looking into his direction for the whole class. And Voldemort knew, he was sure that she heard him pretty well, heard what he said in his mind. The real question was HOW?
Thank Salazar that he already had faithful servants checking Miss Christopher's full background history. He just had to wait for the right moment to confront her.
"How did you do it?" Sarah asked as soon as they were away from others, in the safe confinement of the library.
"How did I do what?"
"Throwing off the Unforgivable? That too in the first try?" She knew Harriet wasn't going to answer anytime soon by the way the girl was avoiding looking at her, so she did not push it.
"You know what, it's okay! You can tell me whenever you feel comfortable enough to talk about it." Harriet gave a genuine smile for understanding her situation. But she was realising that soon she would have to come up with some solid plan. The duo went to their assigned work when Harriet's gaze landed on a red-head.
"Hello, Lily!" Harriet spoke with a cheerful tone, happy to see her mother again. But she felt that her happiness wasn't reciprocated because Lily's entire demeanour changed. She became more stoic when she heard Harriet greeting her. Next, to Lily, Severus also went rigid. He was one of the people who did not trust Harriet one bit, and how could he when he had first hand seen what happened between her and Bellatrix. Also, he had heard from Lucius and Barty how weird she was acting in their shared classes. So, it became very obvious that Severus was wary of her, no matter how nicely she treated Lily.
"Hello, Miss Christopher." Harriet cringed inwardly seeing the too forced smile on Lily's face.
"How are you, Lily?"
"I'm good! Umm...Miss Christopher, we really are in a hurry, if you don't mind. I'll see you around." Lily felt bad for treating Harriet like this, like an enemy, especially after seeing the disheartening look on her face. But what could she do? For all Lily knew, Harriet was a Slytherin and anyone belonging to the snake house couldn't be trusted.
"Yeah, see you around." She had known that getting sorted into the rival house would definitely strain the dynamic between them, she just hadn't anticipated that it would hurt this much. As Harriet looked at Lily's retreating from, she could feel holes burning in her head, and she turned around to see her young father and godfather glaring at her.
Now was not a good time to pick a fight with them and bring Sarah into the unnecessary mess. So she diverted her attention and went back to her work.
"I don't like this new girl, she doesn't give me a good vibe." James muttered to his three pals.
"You haven't even talked to her. How can you say that she's a bad person?" Remus questioned James.
"She's a Slytherin. What more reason could you want Moony?" Sirius totally backed up James' stupid accusations.
"Your brother is a Slytherin. Does this mean he's evil too?"
"Don't drag Regulus into this Moony! And what is it with you? What's with the sudden impulse to defend the evil bastards?" Sirius whisper yelled, clearly annoyed by his werewolf friend.
"I'm not defending anyone. I'm just saying not to judge someone because of the sorting of their house." Remus groaned when neither James nor Sirius took in his works seriously.
"Come one, Peter. We have better things to do than to make plans for pranking somebody." Remus packed all his stiff and left with a conflicted Peter in tow.
"See! I told you this Christopher girl gave me bad vibes. Because of her Moony is fighting with us, not to mention the fact that she is trying to get closer to my Lily." James groaned in frustration.
"We won't let her do anything to Lily. Come one, I have an idea." The glint in Sirius's eyes assured James to some extent.
On the other side of the library, Harriet and Sarah were busy with completing their Ancient Runes assignment, when someone joined their table.
"Hi Sarah!" Harriet glanced and saw it was the same Ravenclaw girl with whom Sarah sat in Potions.
"Hey Lizzie!" The smile that covered her friend's face made Harriet's eyebrow rise in question. She did not show it though, opting to observe her from far.
"Harriet, this is my friend Elizabeth, Lizzie this is Harriet." Sarah introduced the two in a rushed breath, a blush creeping upon her cheeks.
"Hello Harriet, it's nice to meet you." The Ravenclaw smiled sweetly and according to Harriet, her presence was making Sarah flustered as hell.
"Likewise."
"Sarah I was wondering if you wanted you could help me with the Transfiguration assignment." Elizabeth asked with furrowed brows to which the brunette immediately agreed.
"But Sarah, we have Ancient Runes next." Harriet was shocked to see the usually composed girl acting so weird.
"Don't worry, I won't take long and I'll be back soon." She left along with Elizabeth in a haste, leaving behind Harriet a little bewildered and also a little confident about her suspicions.
