**Number Four up and running! Thanks everyone for reading, adding, and subscribing to updates! I'm so glad that you all are liking it! Also thanks to everyone who's commented or sent me constructive criticism. I appreciate it very much! Now on with Ch.4. Beware that I may have tweaked some rules of spell using. Also, a few scenes will sound familiar to the book because I swiped them and twisted them to my will. Muahahaa!! again with the disclaimer: I didn't create the Harry Potter Universe but damn, I wish I did. Enjoy!**
Zephyris caught up with Neville as he was entering the castle.
"Hey, wait up!" she called. Neville turned to her and gave her a small smile as he slowed his walk. She pushed her hair back and straightened her bag. "Are you going to Defense against the Dark Arts?"
"Yeah." He replied. "You heard that your father is teaching, right?" She noticed his voice had an air of disappointment or dread.
"That's right. Why is everyone so upset about this?" she asked him. "I'm happy he's finally getting to do what he's been longing to do."
Neville gave her a look that said he didn't mean to insult. She picked up on it. "Is he often rude to you?" she asked him.
As they neared the classroom, he hesitated to talk. "Well…yes…er…I mean no. Well…." He fidgeted with his book bag and looked to the ground. "Sometimes." He finally said quietly. Then louder, "But don't tell him I said that, alright? I don't need him teasing me more."
"I wouldn't dream of telling him, Neville. Besides," she said, "I wouldn't betray the trust of my house mates. Heck, "She said with a sigh. "You're the only one who would talk to me aside from Hermione." She poked her head inside of the classroom. It was almost full. "We should get in." she said. "I'd hate to be late on the first day."
"Right." Neville replied. They walked in together, Neville chatting happily about a plant he was caring for as a special project for Professor Sprout. They took seats together behind Hermione, Ron, and Harry. They sat beside a boy from their house named Seamus. He gave her a half hearted smile and moved his books over to give her and Neville room.
Zephyris leaned over her desk and tapped Hermione on the shoulder. "Hey," she said in a low voice. "How was ancient runes?"
Hermione turned to Zephyris with an excited yet exasperated look, "wonderful! I was just telling Harry and Ron that I was given a load of homework though. Nothing I can't handle." She said with a small smirk. "To be expected, huh?"
"In the sixth year, I'd think so." Zephyris said, "I should have taken more classes."
"Go talk to Professor McGon—" She was cut off by a hand coming down hard on her desk. Hermione nearly jumped out of her seat and whipped around to see Professor Snape glowering down at her.
"Class has begun Miss Granger, Miss Snape. Do quiet yourselves. Something I'd expect from this insufferable know it all but you, Zephyris, I hope you didn't' act this way when you attended Durmstrang." He said as he drew himself up. "Five points each from Gryffindor."
Harry stole a glare at her over his shoulder.
"I'm sorry!" she mouthed to him.
Professor Snape threw himself into a speech about the class he was about to teach. Something about tests and defending themselves against a many headed monster or something. Her mind was somewhere else for the moment. She tried to focus but the drone of his voice was lulling. Her mind drifted to the night when Bellatrix and Narcissa were at the house. Why had he introduced Bellatrix with a fake name? Surely he'd know that Zephyris would recognize her. Maybe he'd hoped that he tricked her into thinking that she was safe?
Zephyris was jerked from her thoughts but stifled laughter from Draco's group. She jumped back into the lecture just in time to hear her father take a jab at Harry for lacking brain power. Zephyris sighed and began twirling her hair with her wand, turning her lazy coil from black to yellow then to red and then to green.
"Today we will be practicing jinxes and shields. Rudimentary for some I'm sure," he cast a glare at Harry, "but again, fame can't get you everywhere. We'll be practicing them silent. Everyone pick a partner."
People began pairing up with each other. Hermione paired with Ron. Zephyris was about to ask Neville to pair with her when her father stepped in.
"Zephyris, please pair up with Mr. Potter. Show him what real knowledge in dark arts and the defense of dark arts is, will you?" Zephyris went very red in the cheeks. Everyone stared at her as he made this comment about her Dark Arts knowledge. "Well then?"
"Yes sir." She said and she immediately looked at Harry. "Shall we?"
"Fine." He said noncommittally. With a flick of his wand, Professor Snape cleared the room of all desks, stacking them neatly to either side. Their book bags were all piled up at the back of the room.
"Alright, one person attempts to jinx, the other to shield. Spread out and no talking!"
Zephyris looked at Harry. "Er…shall we to the back of the room?"
"Whatever." He replied. Zephyris nodded and walked to the back of the classroom.
"So, what kind of wand core are you using?"
"Phoenix feather." He said as he assumed the stance.
"Ah, interesting, I'm using—" she didn't get to finish her sentence. Zephyris found herself writhing on the floor in a fit of giggles. "Oh you bastard!" she laughed, "You didn't even wait till I was ready!" With much concentration, she silently threw a jimmy-leg jinx at him. Harry's legs began spasming in a fit of strong muscle twitches that knocked him down. She counter jinxed herself then gave him one. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Get up." She said coldly. "You did that on purpose."
"Of course I did." He said. "The dark wizards don't wait for you to be ready. But I'm sure you know that already." He told her as he flicked his wand at her. She countered with a shield and the jinx flew off.
"How dare you!" Zephyris flicked her wand at him. Harry tried to block but couldn't get his shield charm up in time. He began spewing large amounts of pink foam. Harry tried to counter the jinx but couldn't. Zephyris did it for him. "Are you ready to play fai—" she blocked another spell. And another. "you're muttering them!" she whispered, realizing that the reason he couldn't pull off a jinx while spewing foam was because he couldn't make a noise.
Snape walked by and watched. Then he let out a long sigh. "Potter, this is how you effectively jinx someone." He pointed his wand at harry but before he could do much else harry yelled out.
"Expelliarmus!" Snape's wand went flying out of his hand.
Zephyris's face blanched. "A…Accio father's wand!" and the dark slender piece of mahogany flew to her hand.
"I said silently, Potter!" Snape hissed. "Did you not hear me?"
"Yes." Harry replied.
"Yes sir."
Harry replied instantly, "You don't have to call me sir, professor." Several people gasped including Hermione and Zephyris.
Professor Snape's dark eyes widened. "Detention. Saturday." He said coldly. "I do not take cheek from anyone….not even the chosen one." He took his wand from Zephyris and with a flick, everyone's bags were being hurled at them and desks were flying back in place. "Two feet on the theory of unspoken spells. Class dismissed."
Zephyris rushed out after Hermione who rushed out after Harry and Ron.
"That was bloody spectacular!" Ron exclaimed as they walked back to their dormitories to drop of their bags before lunch.
"That was stupid!" Hermione yelled. "Why did you do that?"
Zephyris grabbed Harry's sleeve. "Harry!" she called. Harry stopped and turned to her, snatching his sleeve from her grip.
"What?" He barked in her face, his green eyes gleaming. "What!?"
Zephyris looked at him hard, finding she was only a few inches shorter than he. "Why would you say something so disrespectful!?" she shrieked. "I would never DREAM of saying something like that to him! "
"He was going to jinx me!' Harry yelled.
"So what!?" she yelled back. "I've been jinxing you all morning! You' have been used to it! Besides, he wasn't going to hurt you! It's defense against the dark arts! How will you learn if you don't' get jinxed once in a while?"
"Well I—"
She cut him off, "You know, I was excited about meeting you. Real excited about it, despite all the tripe my father spoke about you. I wanted to believe you were just misunderstood! But after the way you've treated me in such a short amount of time and after seeing how you treat my father, I'm beginning to believe that you're a self important prat!"
Before harry could reply Hermione jumped in. "Zephyris, I know how it looks and I'm not condoning Harry's exceedingly daft actions but it's not like that. Harry isn't like that." She said calmly.
"I don't need you to defend me against her." Harry said.
Zephyris frowned. "Too good for the friends who will obviously stand up for you no matter what?" she growled. "It must be nice being famous, Harry."
"Oh do you want this?" he yelled back at her. "Do you think you could shoulder all of this?"
"Stop being a martyr!" she snapped back. "And yeah! I think I could! I could and I wouldn't be acting like a complete jack-ass while doing it!" She clenched her wand in her robes. "Yeah, You're special, I'm special, We're all BLOODY SPECIAL! You need to get over yourself. You're not the only one without parents! "
"Don't talk about my parents!" Harry yelled. He felt himself torn between never hitting a girl and just trying it once.
"Stop it!"
Everyone was thrown by who yelled this time. It was Neville. He was shaking fiercely beside Ginny and the portrait of the fat lady.
"Will you just stop it?" he said quieter. "We shouldn't be arguing or fighting at a time like this." He said.
"Neville is right." Ginny said. "Now, with all this crazy stuff going on, we can't all fall apart."
"What's this we business you're yammering about." Ron asked. "She," pointing to Zephyris, "just got here and she's daughter to the enemy."
"Ron!" Hermione gasped. But it was too late. The damage had been done and it was now very obvious to Zephyris why she didn't fit. They must know about her father's connection with the Dark Lord and therefore assume that she's a death eater in training too.
"You bastards…" Zephyris sniffed. "You bloody bastards!" She screamed at Harry and Ron. She tore off down the stairs, her long dark hair floating behind her.
"Way to go, guys!" Hermione huffed as she ran after Zephyris. Ginny and Neville gave Harry and Ron disapproving looks before going back into the common room.
"Way to go, you git." Ginny muttered to Ron as she closed the portrait.
The fat lady looked down at the two. "Coming in or going out?" s he asked. "hurry up because I don't' have time for your little dramas."
The two boys glared and the fat lady. "Come on, Harry." Ron said. "Let's go get something to eat."
Zephyris's grey eyes were blurred with tears making it hard to navigate the halls of students and teachers.
The first day.. she thought. The first flipping day! Nothing goes right for me! Her feet took her out of the school and across a long open bridge that seemed to be held together by magic. It expansed over a deep chasm covered in grass and jutting rocks. The wind danced in and out of the bridge's opened sides, pulling her hair about. She bent over and rested her arms on the railing and her head on her arms, staring down at a trickle of stream that flowed at the very bottom of the chasm. Large heavy tears sprinkled the railing and fell beyond, joining the gentle bubbling brook.
"Zephyris?" said a voice to her right. Zephyris didn't look up but knew it was Hermione. The bushy haired girl took a place beside Zephyris on the railing. "Are you alright?"
Snape's daughter let out a short chuckle. "Wonderful," she said sarcastically as she sniffed and wiped her eyes on a handkerchief.
"Don't be like that, Zephyris." Hermione said. "I'm not here to argue with you."
Zephyris sighed. "I know…" she sniffed again. "I guess I'm just a little on the defensive." From somewhere deep in her book bag, Pen climbed out and began clawing up her robes. Zephyris reached down and gave the little ferret a boost up. "How can you stand to be around him?" she asked Hermione. "Is he always like that?"
Hermione sighed. "Well, no," she began. "Not always. You see, Harry's suffered some loss recently and he's taking it hard. I guess it's a complicated story that's not really my place to tell."
"oh, his whole losing his parent's thing? I think we all know that one."
Hermione looked at Zephyris stonily. "You sound like your father." She said.
Zephyris looked down at her ferret who was trying to rummage in her cloak pockets. "I'm sorry…I know he can be…well…he can be a jerk. A real jerk. But Hermione, he's all I've got. And when Harry insulted him, I just kind of came unglued inside. Hermione," the grey eyed girl turned to Hermione. Her face was clouded in sadness and worry making her usually gentle eyebrows furrow and her dreamy eyes look dull and desolate. "Hermione, if something was to happen to him, I'd be all alone! I wouldn't have anyone! I'm so worried all the time about—" she stopped herself and put her face in her handkerchief.
"About what?" Hermione urged.
Zephyris sniffed and leaned close to Hermione, whispering in her ear, "About his work with the Order." Hermione pulled back and looked at Zephyris.
"What do you know about that?" Hermione asked.
"Not much because he keeps me in the dark. For my own good, he says. But I know that he's in a precarious spot. That's why no one knows I'm alive!" she cried as she burst into fresh tears. Hermione put her arm around the sobbing girl.
"Come on." She said gently. "Try to calm yourself." Zephyris turned and threw her arms around Hermione, sobbing hard. "It's going to be alright Zephyris." She said to the crying girl. "It's going to get better. You'll see."
"And to top it off," zephyris said shakily, pulling away from Hermione. Pen popped her ferrety head out of Zephyris's cloak pocked, gasping for air. "He wont even tell me who my mother is." Zephyris smoothed out Hermione's hair where she had been crying.
Hermione frowned. "Why not?"
"Search me," replied the raven haired girl. "He either changes the subject or tells me some lie. She died, she didn't want me and she couldn't stand having a family, crap like that. He doesn't even know, I don't think. She was probably a muggle, you know? Doesn't want to bring it up with all this You-Know-Who fuss."
"Well if she is a muggle, it doesn't matter, right?"
Zephyris shook her head, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. "It doesn't matter to me." She said, "I don't care if she's muggle, wizard, squib, or whatever. I just wish I had her with me."
"Are you going to be alright?" Hermione asked.
Zephyris nodded, "yeah, I think I'm good…but what about Harry and Ron?" Pen climbed up from her pocket and settled onto her shoulder, looking at Hermione.
"I'll try to talk some sense into them. You have to understand that Ron will back Harry no matter what. They're best mates. And right now Harry is hurting. He lost someone close to him."
Zephyris's eyes widened with understanding. "Oh wait, I remember my father mentioning this. Sirius Black was Harry's godfather."
"That's right." Hermione said.
"That's sad. His only family, well aside from his aunt, uncle, and cousin."
Hermione scowled. "They're terrible people. They treat him horribly. Why, last Christmas, they sent him half a q-tip and a paper clip."
"I'd say it's the thought that counts but I dare say that doesn't apply, eh?"
"exactly." Hermione scratched Pen's ear. "So he's feeling horrible. He feels empty, lost, and stressed. I'm not making excuses for him. I'm just trying to give you an insight. I mean, he saw Sirius struck down. You read about what happened at the Ministry last spring, right?"
"I did. Read about it. Heard about it from my father. You all saw some wicked action." Zephyris folded her handkerchief.
"It was crazy. Curses flying, everything just going mad." Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "And things are only going to get worse, you know?"
Zephyris nodded and looked down at Pen. "yeah…I know. I think I'll try to apologize this evening.'
"It couldn't hurt." Hermione replied. "Come on. We'll be late for our next class."
**Whew! They just keep getting longer! ^_^() Again, comments and helpful criticism are most welcome! Please dont' pick apart my lore or my magic science. heheeee ^_~ ch 5 coming soon!**
