12. Shattered Peace
The next day was Friday and as always, she headed for her Astronomy class in the evening.
She was the first to break the silence that had descended after the night she shouted at him.
"Malfoy, where were you last night?"
"Why the sudden concern?" There was a bitter tone to his voice.
"Just tell me."
"I was in bed." The lie came quickly to his lips.
"The whole night?" She asked accusingly.
"Yes," he said.
She kept quiet for a while. He looked uncomfortable and turned away.
"Thank you," she said at last, her voice a whisper.
He did not say anything, but she could swear she saw a smile tugging on his lips.
It was quite a long wait for Lera till mid-October arrived, and with it came the first trip of the term to Hogsmeade. She had been looking forward to it for quite some time as it would be the first time she had the chance to get out of the castle grounds for a few hours. It was vastly different from the times when she was homeschooled, as she could go out anytime she wanted to. Even with the increasingly tight security measures around the school, the trips were still allowed, which greatly pleased and relieved her.
Her high spirits were considerably dampened early next morning when she woke up and saw the dark clouds that indicated that a stormy day lay ahead.
With time to spare, she grabbed her Astronomy text and headed to a comfy couch in the common room, only to find Harry already there, poring over the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making he had not yet returned, much to the consternation of Hermione. Seeing that Hermione was still sleeping the morning away in her bed upstairs, she decided that this was a good time to finally get a good look at the book. Harry had attempted several spells that he said the Half-Blood Prince had invented and curiosity was eating away at her since she could not in good conscience ask Harry to teach her the spells when Hermione was standing right next to her with disapproval written all over her face. Some of the spells were rather entertaining, but she was much more interested in those that were actually of practical use, such as the Muffliato, which filled the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing, so conversations could be had in privacy.
She immediately joined him on the couch and peered over his shoulder, while he thoughtfully shifted the book to give her a better view. He was on a page that was particularly messy, with words squeezed in the margins that were crossed out and altered several times. The Prince had finally arrived at a conclusion, as he had scribbled a word in tiny handwriting in a corner of the page: Levicorpus (n-verbal).
Interested in finding out what this spell did, and feeling quite confident in her skill with non-verbal spells, she pointed at nowhere in particular, gave it an upward flick and thought Levicorpus! Inside her head.
With a strangled scream, an unsuspecting Ron who had wandered down sleepily walked into the path of her spell and was immediately suspended in the air upside down, as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle.
"Sorry," she said with a sheepish grin that did little to hide the amusement bubbling within. Harry didn't even try and started roaring with laughter. She squinted at the page and found an even smaller scribbling underneath the spell that said Liberacorpus. Fortunately, it was indeed the counter-spell which released Ron and dumped him unceremoniously onto the ground.
"I don't seem to remember volunteering to be your guinea pig," Ron said with a frown, prompting another round of laughter.
The three of them agreed not to tell Hermione of this little incident; there was no doubt she would not find it amusing.
An impatient wait for Filch to finish checking them with a Secrecy Sensor later, they were finally cleared to step out into the wind and sleet.
The walk to Hogsmeade was tortuous, as the biting wind cut through to her skin and rendered the many layers of shirts and sweaters and a scarf and cloak she had on useless. By the time she followed the trio into Honeydukes, she had never been so glad to be in a crowded sweet shop.
Breathing in the mercifully warm, toffee-scented air, she caught sight of Professor Slughorn who was wearing something that made him look like an unusually furry bear, making his way through the crowd towards them, and thus promptly disappeared behind a tall shelf of jars. The rest weren't as lucky and were genuinely surprised when a booming voice of "Harry, m'boy!" sounded behind them.
She peeked out from behind the shelf and watched the ensuing conversation which included a lot of persuading on Slughorn's part, declining on Harry's part, and being ignored on Ron's part. It finally looked like Slughorn was giving up and moving off.
"Now how about Miss Drae! I haven't been seeing her around lately. Perhaps she would like to join you, Miss Granger, this Monday night."
"Well, I'm not sure if she has anything on, I'll ask her," said Hermione.
Professor Slughorn, after looking around the sweet shop to see if he could suddenly spot Lera, but to no avail (as she had quickly bent down to examine a jar of cockroach clusters on the bottommost shelf), nodded and waved goodbye.
He waddled out of the shop without a backward glance and Lera stepped out from behind the shelf to rejoin her group.
"I can't believe the both of you are letting me go alone again!" Hermione sighed, then caught sight of Ron's moody expression at being overlooked once again and pronounced that they should head to the Three Broomsticks.
The four of them once again braved the falling sleet, before Lera slipped away with an excuse of visiting the quill shop to replenish her supplies and a promise to meet the trio in the Three Broomsticks once she was done.
Instead, she headed to Dervish and Banges. The shop was crowded as well, and she squeezed past groups of students to reach the counter.
"Rupert!" she called, and a sandy-haired young man seated behind the counter looked up. Upon seeing her, he signaled to another female assistant, gesturing for her to take over the counter for a while, then got up.
"Lera! I haven't seen you in quite some time!" he said with a friendly smile. "Since…" he suddenly paused as he realised that the reason why she hadn't visited was because of the attack and it really wasn't a good idea to remind her of that. So he pasted an overly bright smile on his face and asked, "So what are you looking for today? We have some new supplies that came in just last week."
He led her to the back of the shop where an impressive range of weapons were displayed, only for the eyes of a few special customers. Thankfully, her father had ensured that she was one of those few. She walked to the daggers, her favorite type of weapon, and was immediately drawn to a set. They were the most beautiful daggers she had ever seen. She picked them up to study them closely. The ornate hilt was made of dark golden metal ropes that fit perfectly in her hand. The flawless blade was black in color, and slightly translucent, as if it were forged out of a single gemstone. It shone as the light hit it. The outline of a phoenix was set into the bottom of the blade with tiny diamonds. Impressed, she ran a finger lightly across the dark blade and winced when a small cut opened on her finger. It was dangerously sharp.
"I like this!" she exclaimed with a huge grin.
Moments later, she emerged from the shop, two daggers hidden in holsters on her thigh and upper arm. She hurried to grab some quills and ink before joining the trio in Three Broomsticks.
They walked up High Street, following two older girls, cloaks wrapped tightly around them. The weather was worse than before, if that was even possible.
Halfway into the journey back to Hogwarts, she became aware that the two girls were, judging from their increasingly loud voices, having an argument about something the dark-haired girl was holding in her hand. Suddenly, her friend made to grab hold of the package, she tugged it back, and the package fell to the floor.
At once, the dark-haired girl rose into the air gracefully, her arms spread wide and head held back. Lera shivered involuntarily, not from the cold but from the… eeriness. Her hair and scarf whipped around her face, which was devoid of any expression. Her eyes were closed and she looked almost peaceful, or…dead.
The five of them halted in their tracks, watching.
All of a sudden, as she ascended six feet into the sky, she let out a terrible scream. Her eyes flew open, and it seemed as though whatever she was seeing was causing her much anguish. She screamed and screamed; her friend started to scream too, and seized her ankles, trying to pull her back to the ground. The four of them leapt forth and tried to help too, but even as they reached out, the girl collapsed back onto the ground, all the while screaming and writhing. They looked at each other with panic in their eyes, helpless and clueless as to what they could do.
"What's 'appening? Get back!" Hagrid appeared out of the sleet and ran towards them. He stared at the girl for a second, then scooped her up in his arms and ran off towards the castle, leaving the five of them standing there, rather badly shaken.
Lera hurried over to the wailing friend. "What happened?" she demanded to know.
"The package tore," she sobbed, pointing to the sodden brown package lying on the slush. "Katie touched it and…" she dissolved into great sobs, and not a legible word could come out of her mouth anymore.
Ron bent down, his arm outstretched towards the greenish glimmer that peeked out from the split in the package, but Harry seized his arm and pulled it back.
"Don't touch it!"
"I've seen it before," said Harry, as he crouched down and stared at the ornate opal necklace. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. I think it was a cursed necklace."
"We'd better bring it up to school, they'll want to know what this is and how she got it," said Lera, before she removed her scarf, and with great care, covered the necklace and picked it up. She heard Ron's gasp, but figured that she was probably safe since the necklace did not affect Katie when it was covered by the brown packaging. It was the only way she could bring it back anyway, there was too much risk in trying to levitate the necklace. There was no telling how the cursed necklace would react to magic.
"Let's bring it to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested, leading the still sobbing friend with an arm around the shoulder.
A/N: Not much Draco action now, I apologize, but I do need to set the rest of the story. There will be a few more chapters with limited Draco involvement, then he would come back into the story again.