Helloooo again! I can't believe how many hits I have! I'm especially surprised that people like it so far! Glad I'm not disappointing anyone yet =) I'm not exceedingly happy with this chapter, but its more of a filler than anything else really. I know how this story is going to move along and how its going to end, I just find the in between parts a little harder. This chappy is more to give you an idea of what Pandora is like and how she effects others, but soon enough I will peel off the layers of her character! Enjoy!
They danced, flickered, and whipped about without a care in the world. No one to tell them where to go, or what to do, or how to do it. Their actions and soothing warmth giving comfort to those who surround them. They ought to consider themselves lucky, to be so appreciated by many; so dangerously enchanting, one might consider just falling into them.
The flames within the fireplace danced in Pandora's eyes, darkness surrounding nearly every inch of the Gryffindor common room while the fire played across her stricken face. The all too familiar horrific nightmare and those witness to it had forced her to where she now sat, attempting to lose herself in the contained fire storm. The only problem was the all too familiar horrific nightmare was still fresh beneath her eyelids. She was used to the sleepless nights; classes in four hours would be no harder or easier than it had been the day previous. The hours spent in front of the fire melted erratically and soon enough students began filtering down the steps and towards the Great Hall. One particular student paused just as she passed the couch vacated by Pandora and turned to face her, biting her bottom lip in anticipation.
"Pandora? Are you alright?"
Pandora remained sitting stick still, her shoulders squared. Hermione took one more brave step towards her, fidgeting with her hands.
"You...you looked really shaken up, I-"
Hermione jumped as Pandora stood abruptly, standing half a foot taller, a fierce expression masking her flame-illuminated face.
"The last thing I need from anyone is pity, especially at the cause of a bloody dream." Her voice was cold and harsh, harmonizing with her face. "I would encourage you to keep out of other's business, if you know what is good for you."
Pandora swept past Hermione as she made her way towards the portrait hole but Hermione stood her ground and caught up with the witch, stepping in front of her.
"If you know what is good for you, you would not push those away who wish to help-"
Pandora tilted her head downwards, accentuating the difference in height, and the look upon her face caused Hermione to withdraw slightly.
"I do not wish for help. No one has helped me in the past and no one needs to. Now get. Out. Of. My. Way."
Pandora bit the last five words of her sentence with pure venom and pushed past Hermione once more. She glanced around the common room filling with curious students with a look of dismay and suddenly turned on her heel and exited the room.
Pandora trudged along the corridors at a quick rate, the sour expression never leaving her face. How dare that skinny girl make her out to be a weakling, like...like an ordinary human who needed to talk. It was foolish, she knew, to share anything. It only caused pain in the end. Whether it is emotional or physical, the pain felt similar however it ended up. That was what a mind was to be used for: holding information and emotions. The ones who needed to express such things were weak of the mind and it was wise to remain unconnected with those people.
Her feet took her to a dark, lonely corridor filled with ancient armour pieces and tapestries covered in cobwebs and dust. She aimlessly weaved in and out of the crumbling columns, kicking around bits of broken stone and odds and ends lying around the cold floor. Her hand wandered to an odd bit of tapestry when the slightly familiar dinging sound was heard around the hall as it echoed through the castle. She sighed heavily and decided to find her way towards the Transfiguration classroom. Pandora took her seat near the rear of the room while the last ding sounded and immediately placed her text book on her desk along with her quill and parchment. The spell McGonagall had taught today Pandora found slightly difficult and only managed to gouge halfway through the somewhat large piece of stone given to each student.
Pandora found Potions class to be no easier but the Veritaserum she concocted, however long it took, came out exactly as intended and received one of the top marks in the class for her potion. As she accepted that fact with a blank expression she noticed the odd looks directed at her by the Gryffindors of the class but chose to ignore them and packed her supplies with a quiet dignity. She made her way to Herbology, hopeful for the useless prats in the class before hers so she would not be forced to vacate the stuffy room seven floors above her head undoubtedly occupied by a certain intellectual. She allowed a satisfied sigh to escape her lips as she filed through the clear door and down the isle of what looked like tiny trees rooted in small pots. The lesson required everyone to study the irregular movements of the small branches and relate said movements with human emotions. This complicated plant, the Willow Hominis, was said to be extremely rare and temperamental.
As Pandora slowly made her way back towards the Gryffindor tower, she passed two very large, ancient doors and noticed the large room on the other side was filled with what looked like hundreds of books. Pandora wandered in rather timidly and soon resumed her brisk pace towards a table on the other side of the room near large windows and set her things down on the surface. Her eyes grazed over the towering rows of knowledge and began browsing curiously through the shelves, picking out random books with intriguing titles and read through each of them, absorbing the magical information. She sighed as she looked up towards the clock situated near the front of the library and concluded that lunch had started nearly twenty minutes ago. Her stomach growled in protest at the thought of making her way to the common room to gather supplies and books needed for her classes after the lunch break. She returned the books she had borrowed and promptly made her way towards the tower only to be stopped, after taking barely thirty steps, by a teenage boy with jet black hair. Pandora looked down upon him slightly, a dangerous look glinting in her eye.
"Must you walk the same path as I? There is, after all, room for several hundred students in this hall." Pandora coolly spoke first and noted a mirroring dangerous glint appearing in Harry's own eyes.
"Heard your morning rant earlier. You stay away from my friends, right? Hermione didn't do a thing to you."
Pandora quirked an eyebrow at the fierce tone edging in his voice.
"Tell them to stay away from me."
Pandora brushed past a fuming Harry and continued on her route to the common room, shaking her head at how close she had come to admiring this young man and his nosey companions' nerve. The thought quickly left her mind as she entered the seemingly empty common room and stiffly plopped herself down onto a chair. As she felt her body begin to relax, she heard quiet footsteps which began to sound like they were descending the stone staircase. Hushed but intense voices followed this sound.
"I know! I mean, I can't believe someone would just go off like that, especially to Hermione Granger! That girl must really have something up her arse!"
The other girlish voice giggled shamelessly and replied in a gossipy tone.
"Too right, but you heard what that talking hat said about her! 'She would do well in Slytherin'? What sort of bizarre traits must this person have to have been able to be accepted in both Gryffindor and Slytherin?"
The only sound for mere moments was the descending footsteps.
"Hang on, isn't that what happened to Harry? I could've sworn the hat mentioned Slytherin..."
"Whatever the hat said, Harry has never shown any real Slytherin traits and this...this Pandora-"
"Yes?"
The two girls nearly fell down the final few steps as they took note of Pandora sitting rather innocently in the chair situated just beside the staircase. Pandora raised an eyebrow at the two, one with long, blonde hair sporting a skirt shorter than allowed, and the other with long dark hair, clutching at a pair of books. The blonde one recovered quickly.
"You...you show un-Gryffindor-like behaviour!"
Pandora quirked her head to one side inquisitively and grinned inwardly as the two girls fidgeted nervously under her intense stare.
"And what would a typical Gryffindor behave like?"
The two glanced at each other and the dark haired girl nudged her friend with her elbow.
"You...you've got this, Lav."
Lavender's lips thinned noticeably and she smiled grimly at her companion.
"Well, thank you, Parvati." She muttered. Pandora's gaze never wavered on the two. "Well...a Gryffindor must be brave, loyal, and chivalrous, of which you are none." Lavender inhaled deeply and squared her shoulders. "You should have been sorted into Slytherin." Lavender nodded curtly and swiftly made her way through the common and out the portrait hole, Parvati following closely at her heels.
Pandora watched the girls exit the room and couldn't help the conflicting feelings of anger and confusion settle in her chest. She shook her head and headed up to her dormitories and deposited her books beside her bed and picked up the two needed for her next classes in one swift motion. She pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation as she descended the stairs and paced out the common room into the empty corridor. Pandora flew down the flights of moving staircases and stone steps until she found herself walking through the dark and grimy dungeons. A smooth, deep voice caught her attention and she turned sharply, nearly running into none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Quite a dangerous task this is; wandering the dungeons alone."
Pandora eyed Draco levelly and his hot breath washing over her face left no impression on her. Pandora decided to get right to the point of her travels in the dungeons.
"Why was I not sorted into Slytherin?"
Draco blinked and raised his eyebrows at Pandora's blunt question but decided to lean his shoulder against the cold wall as he crossed his arms, his brows furrowed in thought.
"Well...Slytherin's are cunning, sly, and extremely ambitious. Not to mention they depend solely on themselves. That is just the general population. So...can you associate yourself with any of those traits?"
Pandora remained where she was and pondered how to answer the question without giving her own personality away to a stranger, but concluded that she needed to answer honestly.
"I...wouldn't say that I am sly. But...I can relate to the rest."
Draco raised an eyebrow and threw out his second question.
"Would you say you are exceedingly brave and polite?"
Pandora let out a humourless chuckle and rubbed her eyes before eyeing Draco once more.
"I'm more of the former and less of the latter."
Draco nodded his head in understanding and asked the final question he knew would hammer the nail into the coffin of this topic.
"Are you Pureblood?"
Pandora's expression flashed in confusing and Draco grinned at her impure ignorance.
"I'll take that as a no." Draco became mildly interested in his fingernails as he spoke. "Being a Pureblood is basically the entrance requirements for becoming a Slytherin." He noted Pandora's furrowed eyebrows at the second mention of the word 'Pureblood' and decided he need to elaborate. "The status of Purebloods means the line of witch and wizard blood in a family has never been tainted by muggle blood-those with no magic." Draco added hastily, noting Pandora's confused expression once more. "I believe it is safe to assume that you are a...Mudblood." The sneer spreading on Draco's mirrored the one on Pandora's.
"That does not sound like a proper name for what I am." Pandora's voice was suddenly harsh.
"You're right. More intelligent about our world than you let on. The proper term is Muggle-born, but to Purebloods, your blood is considered tainted. Impure."
Pandora raised an eyebrow at the sneering Slytherin and spoke in a cool voice.
"Seems silly, don't you think? Judging someone immediately because of something you cannot see." Pandora walked past Draco swiftly and without looking back, she added. "You seemed quite fond of me before we came to this conclusion."
Draco remained leaned against the wall, taking in Pandora's words and flipping them over constantly inside his head, desperate for comprehension.
Pandora spent the entire Defence against the Dark Arts class working on her Disillusionment Charm until finally, with a satisfied nod, she managed the spell herself without the help of her fellow students, who seemed quite happy not to be involved. Harry had eyed her coldly throughout the entire lesson his red haired friend became close to sulking and chose to ignore everyone. Charms class was no better while Pandora studied and noted the specifics of the Patronus Charm, choosing to ignore completely the angered looks and hushed murmurs directed toward her. As she nearly rushed towards the common room, an all too familiar voice interrupted her deep thought and hurried steps.
"Ms. Witte. Follow me please."
Pandora sighed internally as McGonagall's voice rang through the hall, her retreating steps following as if an afterthought. She followed the Professor towards the round office once more and was ordered to stop abruptly in the middle of the room. McGonagall ruffled through random pieces of parchment set all over the large desk and soon her piercing gaze settled on Pandora.
"I apologize for not meeting with you yesterday. First day of classes became quite hectic for...well, for all Professors and especially me. Now, for the remainder of this term, or at least until you are able to accomplish this task on your own, I will be teaching you how to Apparate. Now, before you ask, I will explain to you what this means. It is a magical way of transporting from one place to another. You simply disappear on the spot and reappear in your desired location. The three things you must remember are: Destination, Determination, and Deliberation. These three words will safely help you arrive in any destination."
Pandora spent the next forty minutes spinning around in one required spot and McGonagall decided to let her off for the day and instructed Pandora to meet her in this office every other day once her Charms class was finished.
Hermione was one of the last to enter the common room from the feast and gestured Harry and Ron to go off to their dorms, she would be fine. She sighed as she turned her gaze from the staircase to the couch in front of the fireplace knowingly and walked to illuminating flames. A small smile curved at her lips at the sight of Pandora sleeping rather soundly on the slightly undersized couch. She gently placed a plate overflowing with food from the feast on the small table in front of the couch and rose to her full height.
"Must remember to eat, Pandora. You'll only become more ill-tempered than you already are."
Hermione ascended the stairs, completely unaware that the next morning would find the plate she had left completely empty along with the couch by the fire.
Well here it is! Slightly boring, maybe, but it will keep getting better, at least this is how I see it. Even one more review will make my day! Expect an update around Monday!