Chapter 4

At the end of her week, Nyx was freed for having completed her detention even though the room hadn't been cleaned completely. The rest of the room was then tidied up by Snape with a single wave of his wand. It angered her a bit. Asking why he hadn't done that in the first place to clean it up he replied back one of the most simplest answers.

"Because it wouldn't have been a punishment if I cleaned the room." He had told her, his arms crossed once she'd gathered up her stuff, getting ready to leave the room for bed.

"You filthy badge banger!" She hissed. He glared at her, his upper lip drawing up in disapproval of the name calling.

"Your language Miss Fairbourne. A punishment is a punishment and you have dealt the time as it was wise to do. It is done and over with, now I suggest you get out of my sight before dirty this room back up and make you do it again and deduct 100 points from Slytherin!" he returned her hiss with a deadly one of his own.

"Yeah yeah piss off!" She snorted, turning around, heading down the stairs. She hated being taken advantage of like that, but now that she thought about it, she had overreacted. It made sense once she thought it through a few times. He needed a punishment, and the best punishment for her was to dirty up a room and have her clean it.

Sighing she laid back on her bed. She was still sleeping on the floor so the bed was hardly used. She'd gotten a few questions as to why she slept on the floor, and she simply said it was because the soft bed hurt her back. It did. She was so used to sleeping on the floor that a bed hurt her. She figured that that'd end soon enough –especially with her spending more and more time laying on the bed to get used to it. Sighing, now completely bored without having detention to look forward to, Nyx closed her eyes, letting them rest. She was tired, but being tired was harshly outweighed with boredom. She needed to find something to do before she went insane.

Standing up she grabbed her bag and looked through it. Was there some book or something she could read? Opening her potions book she began reading it but stopped the reading horribly dry and all that managed to achieve was the urge to sleep. Sighing she closed the book and pushed herself to her feet. If she had any books at her house she would have brought them before she came to the school, but not owning anything had its disadvantages. Maybe they had a good fiction novel in the library.

Grabbing her bag she dumped her books out into her trunk –given to her courtesy of Professor McGonagall when Nyx showed up to class with a wrenched neck from carrying around so many books- and shut it, locking it with a quick prick of her finger. The trunk devoured the blood and locked itself. Turning she made her way out the common room, looking at the portraits on her way to the library.

"Hello five men around a table." She greeted one painting with a smile.

"Hello Nyx," the man on the farthest right of the table greeted. "Fine day isn't it?"

"Kind of. It gets kind of boring around here doesn't it?" She questioned, taking a seat on the railing. She often spoke to the portraits. She found they kept her wonderful company, almost like talking to a real person.

"Sometimes yes. You should join the Quidditch team if you find yourself terribly bored." He offered.

"And have to spend time with Malfoy? I don't think so." She grimaced. He laughed.

"He can be a pain in the bottom."

"How about the Herbology club?" Another man offered.

"Herbology? And get picked on even more?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"It comes in handy. It really does." He insisted. She thought about it, seeing herself standing next to Neville Longbottom in geeky glasses and gloves tickling radishes and snickered.

"What a thrill." She replied sarcastically.

"How about the Hogwarts drama class?" A smaller man, the youngest of them offered.

"Hogwarts has a drama class?" She liked Drama clubs in her old school. She'd been in a few plays before and had found it as a loveable hobby. She could always be something she wasn't. Be someone she wasn't.

"Yes, I believe it has a lot of Hufflepuff students and Ravenclaw. Maybe one or two Gryffindor." He looked at the other two men who had spoken before.

"No Slytherin?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"No, Slytherin tend to believe they're above everyone. You'd be the first in the history of Hogwarts drama club to join." She grimaced, suddenly it not seeming like such a good idea.

"You ever think a Slytherin hasn't joined because the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw's didn't want them to be there?" She squeaked.

"That's a possibility." They nodded. Sighing she shook her head and slid off the railing.

"I'll think over my choices. Thanks for your company, I'll talk to you later boys." She smiled, waving to them.

"Goodbye Nyx, until later." They bid farewell and Nyx continued on her way to the library, thinking over whether or not she was willing to shoulder the never ending insults for joining Drama club or not. Oh wait! She was already shouldering never ending insults, so what should it matter?

Turning she headed into the library and looked around. It was the first time she'd been in there and it was humungous! Looking around in awe she stopped, her eyes catching a small orb of light by the checkout desk. Walking over she examined it. It was a floating, light blue orb of light. It looked a lot like a ball of water. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Looking up she spotted a Goblin behind the desk, writing in a large book.

"Excuse me." She lightly tapped the desk. He stopped and looked up at her with curious eyes.

"What?" He seemed just as unfriendly as the ones she'd heard about.

"What is this thing?" She pointed at the orb. He looked at her as if she were just asking to be a pain in the ass then rolled his eyes.

"It's a book finder." He replied simply, then went back to his writing. She frowned and crossed her arms, staring at him unamused.

"And how does it work?" He stopped again and stared across the room. He huffed, rolling his eyes.

"Just touch it and say what kind of book you're looking for. Fiction, Nonfiction. Political, none political. Female main character, male main character. It's not that difficult." He groaned, glaring at her. Dropping her arms she muttered to herself, then laid a hand on the orb. It was icy cold to the touch but it wasn't painful like touching ice. She thought what kind of book she wanted to read.

"Vampire with male main characters and gays." She replied. The Goblin behind the desk looked at her, his mouth open as if she were some sick freak. A light rose up out of the orb and dashed off across the library, tagging books with what she wanted. She watched it then turned, smiling a sarcastic smug smile in the Goblins direction. "You're lucky I didn't slap your nose off your face you rude bastard." She muttered as she let go and followed the orb of light.

The light had tagged many books. She looked through a few of them, reading the little bit on the back explaining what the story is about, or with a small paragraph from the story itself. Landing on one with a dark and ominous, moody prince she read through the first page. Stepping away from the bookshelf the blue light where she had picked up the book turned red and vanished, all of the lights in that shelf disappearing. Taking the book she went over and sat at a table to read, the other lights vanishing as she got within table distance.

She spent maybe 40 minutes reading, before she heard a familiar voice. Putting her finger between the 50th and the 51st page she looked up and spotted Miss Granger –she didn't even know her first name. She looked away from her and back down at her book. She was on a good part. The main character -Aata – was a poor farm owner. After his parents were slaughtered by a pack of vampires he took over the farm and was looking over his younger sister Adelien, who was about 14 years old. One night after a violent storm Aata went out to the barn to see if the horses were alright and in the barn he found a wounded man. A man with a stake in his stomach.

Rushing in Aata gathered the man up and brought him into the house and laid him down in his room. When the man woke up Aata came in and changed his bandages, washing them. Aata introduced himself and said he was lucky that he didn't die. He noted how attractive the wounded man was and asked if there was anything that was needed.

"Don't worry about me. I thank you for saving me but it's not needed. I was fine by myself." The young man replied stiffly.

"But you were dying out there, how were you fine?" But the younger man pushed himself up and headed for the door.

"I told you before, I'm fine. I have to go now before they come back for me." He replied standing at the door. A surge of pain ruptured through him to his knees.

"See, I told you you weren't fine. Come on, come and rest."

"I don't need your sympathy." The man snarled, anger in his eyes. "You think I am weak, how degrading your words are!"

"I didn't mean to insult you." Aata replied. "I'm just worried for your safety."

"Aata, Aata!" his younger sister ran in, her pale blond hair flowing behind her. She was beautiful, the fairest in the village, and even the elderly was attracted to her. She noticed the man and bowed then looked at Aata again. "Three men are here, they're looking for the stranger." She replied.

"See, you are not safe as long as I am here, let me go you fool!" The man warned.

"I'll tell them to go away, that this is a peaceful village and they shouldn't be here." Aata replied standing from a small chair by the bed and heading for the door.

"You idiot, you'll only get yourself killed." The man said, grabbing him. "They are here for me."

"And why are they here for you?" Aata questioned, looking at him sternly. "What have you done?"

"I…" The man hesitated and squeezed his shoulder, his wound reopening in his stomach, bleeding. "I am Sacheverell." He replied. Aata looked at him shocked. Grabbing his sister he pulled her away from him and removed a harvesting knife from his belt.

"You fiend!" He snarled.

"Who is Sacheverell, Aata?" His sister looked up at him, confused, frightened.

"He's a monster. The King of the monsters that killed our parents!" He snarled.

"Prince, and I assure you, I did not demand any orders for anyone to kill anyone." He tried to defend himself.

"Lies! You had them slaughtered because you could!" Aata pointed the knife in his direction.

"Like I don't have better things to do then harass you humans!" Sacheverell snarled, his stomach bleeding hard. "You humans are essential to us, why would we kill you?" He started panting, resting against the wall. "You feed us, your practices heal us, and your priests bless us. Why would we kill you?" He slid to the floor, his head swimming in pain. Aata heard the knock on the door again and stared at the prince hesitantly, then a thought ran through his head. He could hold the Prince ransom, and his lackeys wouldn't attack the villages again. He just had to word it properly so as not to make the Prince suspicious. Even though he was wounded and didn't want to kill a human, supposedly, he could easily kill him he wanted to, and he doubted the Prince wanted to be used for such things.

"We make out a deal." Aata whispered. The Prince looked up at him confused, wincing as pain ran through him.

"I'll send those men off, and keep them from going after you and your kind, and heal those wounds, if you stay here. As an Icon to your people, whoever it was who came and killed our parents won't return. And if they do, you kill them. Sound like a deal?" Sachaverell looked at him, weighing his options then nodded.

"Protection for Protection? You have yourself a deal, Aata." And with that the chapter ended. Shutting the book, not wanting to read it all in one day she leaned back and sighed. She felt a lot like Aata. And the moody, cynical prince reminded her of…well…her teacher. She was tempted to continue reading but forced herself not to. She looked around for something else to do, then spotted Miss Granger sitting at a table with a large book out and open in front of her. Maybe she could go and talk to her? No, it wasn't often a Gryffindor and a Slytherin spoke. But Nyx was already so bored. Biting her lip she pushed herself up. She was already so much different from the Slytherin's why should she care now?

"Hey," Nyx smiled, standing next to her. The girl looked up startled for a second then forced a smile, the look in her eyes reading why is this girl talking to me?

"Oh, hi." She replied then looked back at her book.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" She pointed at a chair at next to her.

"No, no I don't mind." She replied, pulling the large book out of the way and sliding over to give Nyx some room to sit. Smiling Nyx sat down and put her own little book on the table next to her. She looked at the large book and noticed that it must have been at least 25lbs and all of the words were in small font.

"What are you reading?" Nyx pressed on, looking at the title on one of the pages. It was about werewolves.

"Oh, it's called the Big Book of Wizard Stuff." She looked at the nerdy girl confused and ran the title of the book through her head again.

"Wow, of all the cool things Wizard and Witches can do they can't transfigure a cat into a name generator?" The girl glared at her, winning a giggle from Nyx. "I'm kidding. My name is Ellenyx Fairbourne by the way. People call me Nyx though."

"I'm Hermione Granger, and Gryffindor aren't really supposed to be talking to Slytherin." She explained, looking at her.

"Trust me, I'm far from being a Slytherin." Nyx replied, frowning a bit.

"So I've noticed. I'm sorry about…about what Malfoy did to you in the Dark Arts class. He's a vile, mean little cockroach." Her voice quivered a bit.

"Better words than what I would choose from him. Slytherin sucks. They don't even help each other out let alone help out the other houses. It's like they're the narcissistic left overs thrown in a room and left to scrap it out until only one is left standing." Hermione stared at her, a questioning look on her face. Sighing Nyx shook her head. "The only thing I actually appreciate being a Slytherin for is Professor Snape."

"Professor Snape?" Hermione grimaced. "Why him? He just as moody and mean as the rest of Slytherin."

"Yeah, well, he's helped me out of some harsh moments. He seems to listen to me when I tell him things and actually remembers them. Though he doesn't ask me what's wrong. It's like…I don't know. He doesn't want to pry into my life but will be there if I want to tell him something." She mused, looking off across the library. "Kind of strange really. He has two very different sides. He goes from being the harsh anal type in front of people, then he's caring –well, as caring as his kind gets- and willing. I've had more help on my work from him than I have on any other subject." Hermione nodded and looked at her.

"So I've noticed from your potions." Nyx blushed a bit. She had been told on numerous accounts by Snape himself that her potions started off horribly, then quickly –almost overnight- became such a high quality that she'd quickly surpassed Hermione's work and was seriously considering using whatever she didn't keep in his store room. "Anyway, you talk about him as if you love him." Hermione continued on, smiling. Nyx had noticed the sudden change in Hermione's conversation output. She'd gone from hesitant to talking almost as if they'd been friends for years. It was kind of nice.

"No I don't." Nye replied a bit stiffly, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Yes you do, listen to how you describe him!" She smiled, whispering now.

"Prove it." Nyx sulked, biting her lip a bit.

"He has two different sides. He goes from being the harsh anal type in front of people, then he's caring and willing? Come on, that's basically saying he's a jerk in public but he's a real sweetheart when we're alone." She teased. Nyx thought about it and realized just how right Hermione was. Gasping her face turned red. Hissing she glared at the Gryffindor girl.

"I don't have a crush on him!" Hermione laughed.

"He's not too bad." She smiled. "I mean he does have a nice body, though his nose makes him look like bloody bird." She laughed.

"His nose is perfectly wonderful thank you very much." All that managed to do was get her laughing harder. Soon Nyx found herself starting to break into laughing, as Hermione snorted. Nyx could tell that she had been sarcastic about her compliments towards their teacher, but the way she was taking it was comical. They continued talking together until curfew, finding an even ground on quite a few subjects. It took almost 16 years, but finally, had Nyx found a friend?