Classes were the same as always, although we did receive a few demonic glares from most Gryffindors and even a few bold Hufflepuffs. Lunch was a little awkward; you had to watch your back or else it would get hexed, proved by many revenge-seeking Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.
I walked with Aaron to lunch and met up with the elite. We walked into the Great Hall a tad late, but hardly anybody noticed, they were too busy watching their surroundings. It was unusually quiet for lunch time. Usually, chatter would rip through the air and suffocate the teachers, who just sat and watched, but today, the only noise was the screeching sound of metal on metal.
"So," Rodolphus said, shattering the silence at our table, "we've decided how we're going to get revenge on those filthy mud bloods."
"How?" I asked half heartedly while simultaneously picking at the vegetables on my plate.
"We want each 'Marauder' to suffer equally but separately," he started, "so, we're going to have to somehow get them alone, or one of us will have to infiltrate their little group and befriend them, only for the time being, of course."
By the look on Malfoy and the Rosiers' faces, they had never expected that one of us would have to actually interact with any of them. I guess I could of saw this coming, it was a classic Lord Voldemort move. He would befriend you, then kill you, simple as that.
I knew this thanks to Bella, it's all she talked about during Christmas holiday! I have Rodolphus to thank for that; he had stumbled across a . . . secret club, if you will, that wanted to wipe out any unworthy impurities. The club soon gained popularity and respect from most pureblood families, including the Blacks and Malfoys.
"So, which one of us?" Evan asked slowly, turning to see if any of our surrounding classmates had heard us.
"That," Bella said hesitantly, "it was we're still trying to figure out. I think that on of the younger ones should do it, they're fresh and no one knows them. They're perfect for the job!"
"Now when you say younger, you don't mean one of us, do you?" Aaron asked, petrified.
"Of course not, everyone knows that you'd never talk to a mud blood, nonetheless the be friends with them," Rodolphus stated smoothly, " and Cissy can't do it because of the stunt with Potter." We all had to smile at this, the feeling of triumph still hadn't faded from the night before, like Potter's injured nose.
"Why don't we use one of the little shy ones; I'm sure I can get one of them to do it," I answered thoughtfully.
"Which one did you have in mind, there's so many shy first years," Malfoy asked looking down the table at the first years who were reading their textbooks and sipping orange juice, staying oddly quiet.
"Yeah, how do we know that they'll even want to do it?" Aaron asked looking in the same direction as Malfoy, only Aaron could actually name most of them.
"Well, we'll decide later. Right now, I want to talk about the Dark Lord," Bella interrupted gleefully. I could see a twinkle in the back of her eyes, a malicious glint.
"He's recruiting this weekend, and we should all go!" Bella said, more demanding than suggesting.
Rodolphus looked at Bella for a minute before kissing the top of her ebony hair. Bella just smiled and continued to admirably talk of the Dark Lord's plan to wreak havoc on all those unworthy.
"Is the meeting open to first years?" Aaron asked interestedly.
"I don't see why not. Just don't think of joining until your seventh year, that goes for you, too, Cissy," Rodolphus said with a smirk.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Rod," I replied in a false sweet voice, "I don't think I even want to even be a death eater."The clatter of their forks and knives stopped as they all turned and looked at me with appalled faces.
"Care to elaborate, Cissy?" Bella hissed through a glare. It didn't worry me the least, I'd seen it many times before, but this was the first time that it was directed at me, instead of Andy.
A took a deep breath, careful not to let my voice crack, I wasn't used to getting this kind of response.
"I don't agree with every method that the Dark Lord has, I don't even know who the Dark Lord is, Bella, and neither do you! This doesn't mean, however, that I don't agree with his theories. I do want a world purged of all filth, I just don't like that so much magical blood is spilled while pining over mud bloods and blood traitors, but if that is what it takes, fine, I won't stand in the way of oncoming progress. I wouldn't even mind being part of the planning and supporting, but I'll have a son or daughter to take care of and won't stand to let someone besides me and my husband raise our child, and I certainly won't let a pack of ravenous death eaters get their claws into him or her," she explained, finished with, "not everyone is as kind and understanding as you all."
It was kind of quiet after my little invocation. Everyone had a different look on their face. Bella looked proud, Aaron looked uncomfortable, Evan looked confused, Rodolphus looked thoroughly amused, but I couldn't decode the look on Malfoy's face. It was somewhere between amused and overwhelmed.
"Well, you should come to the meeting, regardless," Bella said. Her malicious glint was replaced by a swelling pride only Bella could suppress with a giggle.
"What about Andy?" I asked. Bella stiffened slightly at the sound of Andy's name and her face scrunched up into a sneer soon after.
"What about her?" she replied mercilessly.
"Is she coming?" I asked as though the idea of having to explain was unnecessary.
"That filth-loving tart, of course not! She would either not come or insult and embarrass us in front of the Dark Lord with all of this talk of blood equality."
"Bella, language! I would prefer you did not talk of our sister in that manner. She may have made some wrong decisions but give her some more time, she might come around."
"She stopped being our sister the moment she chose that mud blood over us!" Bella exclaimed. I could see her temper rising ,and surrounding tables were starting to notice.
"I would rather we take this conversation in the common room than have us discuss this out in the open, Bella," I said through gritted teeth.
"No time, Cissy, lunch is just about over. We'll talk later, though. Just for the record, I'm not angry with you so much as I'm angry with Andy for throwing our good name out of favor to some," she said, finishing in a lighter tone.
The bell went off and we all went back to class. Last class of the day, Herbology with Hufflepuffs, but since we were the last class of the day, we were budged in with first and second years. At least it wouldn't be that bad today. It felt nice outside today which meant that Professor Sprout would take us outside for some kind of aquatic plant in the Black Lake above the
Slytherin dungeons.
"Okay class, today we're going to make the best of the nice weather today, so grab your things and follow me to the Black Lake," Professor Sprout proclaimed as we stepped into the grungy
greenhouses.
We all grabbed a pair of gloves and some gardening tools and followed stout Professor Sprout out down to the murky lake.
"We're going to be studying Monkshood today, but be warned, it is extremely poisonous, and you'll have to check and see if there are any fire slugs crawling on them, they bite," Sprout started, "Now, get into groups of four and start uprooting the Monkshood."
My group consisted of myself, Aaron, Malfoy, and some other second year Slytherin.
I took off my shoes and waded into the lake's shore, everyone else following behind me. Herbology was an extremely easy subject to understand.
"Cissa, I don't see how you uproot the Monkshood, it's so bloody irritating!" Aaron said as he
attempted to pluck the plant from the tip of the plant's leaves.
"How hard is it to just reach into the water and pull up the roots of the plant," I said.
He looked like he was having trouble reaching his hand in the water as though it were going to bite him, " and don't even think of saying that you're scared of it! Just because it has eyes doesn't mean that it's going to bite you! It's a bloody plant for Merlin's sake, Aaron!" I told him vehemently.
I could here Malfoy chuckling behind me.
"What are you laughing at Malfoy?" I asked him lightly. A fire slug burned Malfoy's hand and our group, including Malfoy, couldn't help but laugh.
"You seem to be taking this very seriously," he said jokingly as he started cradling his right hand to his chest, "what can I do to make the sting go away?"
"Here, let me," I said and went back to get some aloe from the supplies bag. I found the bright green bottle and walked back down to the water and found Malfoy again.
"Ooh, that looks bad; you're definitely going to need something stronger than aloe when we get back to the castle, but for now this will do," I said as I examined his now red hand and smoothed the gel over it, careful not to rub against it too much.
"How do you know so much about this?" he asked curiously as I put on the finishing touches.
"I've lived with Bella for 11 years, one would need to know how to heal and treat burns and injuries, especially on short notice," I replied casually. I decided that now was the time to meet the second year Slytherin mystery girl I hadn't said a word to, but she was obviously clinging to every word we were saying.
"Hi, I'm Narcissa Black," I said, extending my hand to the black-haired girl with a round nose. She shook my hand lightly and I could see a slight sneer in her expression as she drew her hand back.
"Violet Parkinson, of the pureblood Parksinsons," she replied with the same sneer on her face. Aaron was watching warily from the side, as was Malfoy.
They looked like they knew something I didn't, but wore different expressions. Aaron looked like I was taking a dragon's egg right out from the dragon, but Malfoy's expression was completely different; he looked like calm, but under that he looked somewhat impressed, but by what?
"You're a second year, right?" I inquired while returning to plucking more Monkshood.
"Yes, I am. You're Bellatrix's sister?" she asked sinisterly.
I gave a nod as I finally got the biggest Monkshood I had ever seen before.
"Good job, Ms. Black! That's a mother Monkshood. They're the hardest to get; twenty points to Slytherin! Your group may stop for the day."
"You're a goddess, Cissa," Aaron said as soon as Sprout wandered off to examine some other group's work.
"Thank you, Cissa," Malfoy said as soon as Aaron stopped hugging me.
"My pleasure, Lucius," I retorted with a famous Slytherin smirk.
Aaron and Violet watched in silence, scared to interrupt us or pick a side. Aaron started walking up the hill back to the castle when I was still packing up all of our stuff.
"See you in the common room, homework to do, and if I don't start now I'll never finish in time to actually have fun this weekend," Aaron shouted as he walked out of view.
"You coming, Lucius?" Violet asked in a small, polite voice.
"Later, maybe. I'm going to help, Cissa put supplies up," he called back, already heading for me. She gave him an uncertain, but left without an explanation.
"You're going to help me? How unlike you, Malfoy," I told him as he started shoving samples of Monkshood into the bag in front of me.
"What happened to Lucius?" he asked with his own smirk.
"Fine. So, why are you helping me, Lucius," I corrected myself.
"I happen to be in a good mood, and you did help me with my hand," he replied with a disarming smile.
"Fair enough. Why are you in such a good mood?" I asked curiously as I finished packing in the last jars of the poisonous plant.
"It's the weekend, naturally, I'm in a good mood," he retorted, "when did you start asking so many questions, anyways?"
"I'm not asking that many questions!" I shot back.
He put his hands up as to defend himself, "Fine, Fine," he said before muttering under his breath, "testy testy."
I laughed at this. He was behaving so out of character.
"So what are your plans this weekend? Anything big happening for you?" I asked as we walked over to open grass a little further away from Herbology class and the Black Lake.
"Actually, that's why I'm in such a good mood, I suppose," he said, thinking to himself out loud, "My parents are throwing a party for me this weekend."
"Oh," I said genuinely interested, "For anything special?"
"Not really. My birthday's this Saturday and they feel the need to throw a big party," he replied nonchalantly.
"Well that's not just anything!" I exclaimed, "You should make a fuss over it! In fact, mine is next month, and I know for certain my parents are throwing me a party."
"I just don't see why we should celebrate another year closer to death," he replied. He was dead serious!
"Well, I like to stay positive. It's not just another year closer to death, it's another year closer to making your dreams come true. Besides, you know what people say, the older the wiser and more enriching, like wine," I reassured on a higher note than necessary.
He seemed to find this amusing as though I had just told him some joke about a mudblood.
"You really aren't like either of your sisters, are you?" he inquired in an amused tone, though he seemed less glum.
"No, I'm my own person completely. I have no desire to be either of my sisters," I told him carelessly. For some odd reason, I felt I could trust him, like he wouldn't tell anyone my deepest thoughts. We sat down on a perfect green patch of grass and continued to talk for hours.
By the time we had stopped, it was dark and we were lying on our backs looking at the sky. We had eventually gotten off the subject of our weekend plans and ended up talking about our thoughts about the Dark Lord and everything in the middle of that.
He had the same views as mine, but he wanted to be a death eater, which didn't bother me the slightest. From what I could tell, he was a very exceptional dueler.
"We should probably be getting back," I told him after another ten minutes.
"Why?" he asked, still staring at the stars.
"Because," I replied in a slightly teasing tone, "it's dark and tomorrow is Saturday; you'll need to get up early if you're going to prepare for your party."
"I'm only going if you go, too," he retorted, not budging.
"Why me?" I inquired with a quizzical look on my face.
He leaned on one of his arms and looked at me, "Because, you can hold an interesting conversation."
"Fine, but shear warning, I've never had to dance with a partner before. In fact, I haven't been to a party since I was younger, and my mother wanted to show me off to her high society friends."
"You'll do better than me, by all means," he replied jestingly.
"Well, come on. We better get going," I finally said.
He sighed but stood anyway. He offered me his hand to help me up, and we walked back to the common room. When we walked in, everyone one was still up study for next week's lessons and finishing up today's homework. We walked in and bid our goodnights to each other at the intersecting staircases.
We received some shocked glances but continued anyway. When he was finally out of view, I started to think for myself again.
What would I wear?
Hmmm, I'll just have to go to mother's tomorrow and pick something new out.
I reached the landing to find Bella waiting for me. She looked uneasy and a little distraught.
"Bella, what's wrong?" I asked.
She only shook her head, "Nothing, I just saw you and Malfoy by the lake, and Aaron said that you were let out of Herbology early."
"Oh, well, I'm going to sleep. I have a party to attend tomorrow," I told her.
I walked past her and took a shower. The water felt soothing against my skin. I changed into my camisole and crawled under my duvet and closed my eyes. I had to get some sleep if I was going to be up and ready for tomorrow.