Entry for the "Halloween Event: Costume Party Competition" - character: Rolanda Hooch ; costume: Banshee

Entry for the "Halloween Collection Competition" - prompt: 8. (word) Scream

Creature!AU

Darkness had fallen over the high pine trees of Knapdale Forest near Argyll and only here and there the pale light of the halfmoon fell through the treetops, lighting small, deserted clearings.

A slight breeze rustled through the green needles and the silence of the night was only occasionally interrupted by a owl hooting softly or a wolf howling in the distance.

But not only the night active animals living in the forest were up and moving around – a man wearing a thick, black cloak slowly made his way through the forest. A hood pulled over his shoulder length black hair to shield him from the cold of the night, his eyes were scanning the smooth ground.

Occasionally, he would stop, kneel down and cut off some plants with a small, silver dagger to store them in a velvet sachets hanging from the belt of the black robes he wore underneath his cloak.

Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts, found that this was the perfect night to gather herbs and roots for his private supply of potions ingredients. Here in the forest, no one was going to disturb him. In here, he found the peace he was constantly being denied by his colleagues as they tried to get him into social events.

Sucking in deep breaths of the fresh forest air, enjoying the scent of earth and pine trees, he suddenly felt like the peaceful atmosphere had vanished.

It had not happened loudly, or had any hint of a nearing attack in it. All that was there was the sudden, somehow pressing silence, as if all the animals inhabiting the forest had fallen silent at once, or had vanished.

He could not really place the new feeling that seemed to linger in the air, feeling heavy and mysterious, and quite unlike himself, he could not even come up with a healthy sense of suspicion towards this situation. Normally, he should have disapparated at the spot. But something just seemed to be keeping him here.

And then, he saw it.

A figure came down the path that was leading deeper into the forest, right into its heart. As it came closer, more gliding than walking, he realised what it was.

A banshee.

She did not seem to be from this world and actually to him she looked like a heavenly creature, quite unlike the pictures from banshees he knew.

A mysterious glow surrounded her, seemingly coming from inside of her, glowing as white as the floor-length dress she was wearing. Her skin was milky and pale, matching her incredibly long, platin blonde hair.

But what really stunned him and made him stand at the same spot, paralyzed, were her eyes.

The most beautiful shade of gold, shimmering like a new galleon.

A expression that was unreadable to him, but still made him want to know more about her.

And even though he knew about the deathly nature of banshees, he could not help but think about her as an angel from heaven rather than an angel of death.

How could somebody so beautiful be so deadly? Surely all these tales about them must be wrong...

It was as if her beauty seduced him to blow all his cautions to the wind and therefore, he did not have much time to react to what happened next – in fact, all he could do was open his mouth to a silent scream.

The banshee had opened her pale, rosy lips and it was clear that he was going to die. No human had ever survived the cries of a banshee.

And as her loud, crystal clear voice resounded in the forest, growing louder and higher and more like the cry of a banshee sounded according to the tales, he sank to his knees, staring at the spirit that was so beautiful and so deathly alike.

His eyes were wide in awe and surprise as she continued, her formerly beautiful and enchanting melody growing into a horrible sound. Only seconds later, his knees gave in and his body hit the ground, and even long after his heart had stopped beating, the banshee sang her song of death.

Well, please, any comments are welcome! I really don't know what to think of this one...

You may notice, if you come across the harrypotterwikia article about banshees, that they are normally described as creatures with a black dress and black hair, but in the german version, they also talked about these "white" versions of banshees and I actually liked the idea of having something so deathly coming in a disguise (ookay, just like a siren, but there is still a difference).