SUMMARY: Life is a masquerade in which we all wear masks. Draco Malfoy wears one. There's only one person with whom he lets the mask slip. His mate. The problem is, she's refusing to take hers off. What's behind the mask?
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HP, NOR ANYTHING ELSE YOU MAY RECOGNISE... OBVIOUSLY
*think of that in Severus's voice*
School's a bitch. I apologise for the long wait.
I forgot to explain last chapter, Zara is the same age as Severus but she doesn't look it, due to reasons which will be discovered later in the plot. She looks 17. Zara and Severus are best friends. Also, all of the HP characters are a year older than they are in the books. So because this story is set in the 5th and 6th book, they will be 6th and 7th years. Try and wrap your heads around that :D
Thanks to KyaraSalvatore, and cAesY dR for rewiewing chapter one, hope to have more for this chapter :D
Previously on "Masquerade":
" I finally find my mate and she gets suddenly offended by who knows what and leaves. Why not just stab me in the gut while you're at it? "
Chapter 2:
Zara's POV
"That guy, Draco, is he related to Lucius Malfoy?" Zara demanded of Severus once he had caught up with her outside Ollivanders, her eyes flashing silver.
Severus paused. "Well, I don't know how you know Lucius, but yes, Draco is Lucius' son. Why? What's going on?" He replied.
Zara scowled. "Mum knew him. She offered him and his mate protection the first time You-Know-Who decided he wanted to take over the wizarding world. Like the idiot he was, he refused and took the Dark Mark, saying it was 'the safer option' which is complete bull." She kicked a large pebble viciously into a lamp-post ahead of her.
"So you dislike Draco because of a decision his father made?" Severus tried to understand.
There was silence for a long time as Zara organised the words in her mind, figured out what to say.
"The war, my war I mean, changed me. More than I thought, because thanks to the war, I've gone from Hufflepuff to Slytherin. I trust people even less than I did before the war. Which is saying something, you remember what I was like back then. It's not so much as I dislike Draco, I just don't..."
"Like him?" Severus teased and Zara rewarded him with a small grin.
"...Trust him, is what I was going to say."
"Because of who his father is." He stated.
"Partly. Mostly though it's just one of the after-effects of the war."
"Just one of the after-effects? How many are there?" Severus quickly asked, as if he were afraid to wait too long in case she clammed up.
Zara gave a bitter, twisted version of a smile. "What, have you never heard of PTSD? You should know what it is, you've got bucket full's of it as well." At Severus' blank look, she shrugged as if shaking off unwanted thoughts. "Look it up. Maybe in a Muggle dictionary." She shrugged again, and pasted a too-bright smile on her face. "Now, Dumbledore said you'd take me to-" Severus cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"Yes, yes. If you're done here, which you should be considering you have everything needed for your second sixth year at Hogwarts, " -here they grinned at each other, sharing an unspoken secret- "we'll go now and get this over with." A thought seemed to strike him. "That memory spell you mentioned, please tell me that isn't in effect anymore with the end of your War."
Zara shrugged. "To be honest I'm not too sure. It should be, although Remus Lupin might still know who I am, because of his wolf side. And the others will know me from being one of the Shadow's that helped them out in tight spots the last time, or at least put a face to one of the masks considering they never actually saw my face and there's not much time for talking when you're fighting for your life. That is, assuming they believe us about who I am." Severus groaned.
"Well in that case, this should be... interesting." He said cynically as he held out his arm for her. Smirking, she took his arm and felt the familiar, yet unpleasant sensation of something pulling at her naval. Everything went out of focus, twisting and blurring, until they found themselves in a Muggle neighbourhood, in front of two houses. That in itself wasn't strange. What was strange though, was that the numbers on the houses didn't add up. The pair were standing directly in front of Number 11, Grimmauld Place.
Next to it, where the house should have been Number 12, it read instead Number 13. This didn't seem to bother either of the two, who simply walked up to the gap in-between number's 11 and 13, and waited. Sure enough, the two houses seemed to pull away from each other on their own accord, with the Muggles inside noticing nothing, and in-between number's 11 and 13 appeared Number 12, which had previously not been there. This was, apparently, what Zara and Severus had been waiting for and they started forward with Zara lifting her hand to knock on the door.
Severus stopped her with a grin. "No, let's ring the doorbell instead, it pisses Black off." Zara blinked, confused, but did as he said and pressed the doorbell. This was almost immediately followed by a man roaring in anger.
"How many times do I have to tell you people, DON'T RING THE DOORBELL-"
"FILTHY HALF-BREEDS! SCUM! BLOOD TRAITORS! HOW DARE YOU-" The first man was cut off by a woman screaming at the top off her lungs, whose voice continued to harp on, many of the words in unrecognisable contexts as though the one screaming them was too disgusted and full of hatred to form fully coherent sentences. The door was opened by none other than Remus Lupin, who smiled congenially at them, ignoring the screaming match going on further into the house. "BANE OF MY BLOOD! DISGUSTING MUD-BLOODS, WORTHLESS SCUM, DISTURBING THE HOUSE OF MY-"
"SOMEONE SHUT MY MOTHER UP BEFORE I SET HER ON FIRE!" The first man's voice was heard again. The woman's voice fell silent.
"Severus and... Zara Platt?" Said the werewolf, still smiling calmly. Zara smirked at Severus.
"Told you he would probably remember me." Her comment was ignored. Behind Remus, another old school mate appeared, scowling.
"Snape, must you insist on wringing that infernal thing every time you arrive for a meeting?" Said Sirius.
"Black." Was all Severus said in reply, his upper lip curling in undisguised hatred.
"Who's this? Dumbledore had better have given permission for her to be here." Sirius had noticed Zara, and he was not happy. "You better not have just shown her the paper naming this place as Headquarters without Dumbledore's permission. We've only just-" He was cut off by Severus.
"Relax, mongrel. Dumbledore personally told Zara about here." He sneered at his childhood nemesis. This got him a smack on the arm from Zara.
"Be nice," she admonished him, "he's our host, after all. Haven't you heard of not biting the hand that feeds you?" A grin played around the edges of Remus' mouth as Severus glared at Zara, and swept the two of them inside past Remus and Sirius.
They soon entered what was obviously the kitchen, in which a crowd of people were gathered around a large wooden table, talking quietly. The buzz of conversation quickly died when the newcomer's appearances were noted.
Behind the pair, Remus and Sirius walked in and quickly took their seats. Dumbledore stood and raised both of his arms in a comforting gesture. "Ah, Severus, you brought Zara here. Good. The meeting can now begin. How are you Zara?" He smiled kindly.
"I'm fine, thank-you, sir." Answered Zara, uncomfortable with all the eyes on her.
"Good, good. Now, everyone," Dumbledore ushered Zara and Severus to two seats near him and spoke to the entire room, "I would like to introduce you all to the one of the previous Order members. Those of you from the last war, " he nodded at Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody in acknowledgement, "will have known her as one of the Shadows who helped many Order members out of countless tight spots." An audible murmur rumbled around the room. Dumbledore continued as if he had heard nothing. "Many of you may doubt that because of her apparent young age. I can assure you, however, that I speak the truth. She simply is older than she looks, due to... genetics, if you will. Back then, she went by Zara Platt. This time, she has chosen the sir-name of Shadow, but will retain her first name. Zara, would you like to talk a little of what your duties will be for the Order?"
"Er, sure... Hi. Um, yeah I was one of the Shadows. It was actually a unit called the 'Shadow Warriors' Unit. I am, or rather, I was the leader. The unit is broken up now. I'm not human, and something really important for everyone to know is that my blood is highly poisonous. There is no cure, you will die if you somehow come into contact with it." Someone snorted in disbelief. "I have had enough fighting to last several lifetimes, so I will be the Order's full-time healer. I will only fight if absolutely necessary."
"I don't believe you're a Shadow. Prove it." Said Moody, staring distrustfully at Zara with both eyes, magical and real. Zara's left eye twitched, but otherwise she showed no sign of having heard him.
"Due to my apparent age, I will be going to Hogwarts as a sixth year student, and keeping an eye on Harry Potter. I will also be there for Severus should he need a healer after a summons from You-Know-Who. Not many of you will deal with me, and those of you that do -aside from Severus- will have very little to do with me. Don't ask me about what I am, there's a law that says I legally can't tell humans, so don't push me. That's really all I have to say." She caught Severus' eye and gave a small smile.
Zara's War that she talks about is not a wizard war.
REVIEW!