Samara the Witch

Chapter Seven

After her classes, Samara went outside to the grounds. She needed some fresh air and anyway, she wanted to see John. He'd been sorted into Gryffindor, so she hadn't had much of a chance to see him. He was sitting with a small group with three other Gryffindor students. She approached them slowly, cautious. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. There were too many people, she couldn't cope with that many... But John had looked up and seen her already as she walked and it was too late to turn away.

"Samara! Over here!" He called.

She smiled shakily back at him in an attempt to look happier and less nervous than she truly felt. She walked over to the group of Gryffindors. Two of them moved aside for her and she sat down beside John.

"Hello," she said, mostly to John, but also to the other students. The others introduced themselves as Mallory - the girl Samara had met on the train - Tommy and Thea. They were all first years like Samara and John. Mallory had obviously found the kitten she had been searching for last time; it was now curled up on her lap, purring contentedly. It was fluffy and black, the perfect pet for a witch.

"What's its name?" Samara asked.

"Merlina. It's like Merlin, but she's a girl cat, so it would be stupid if I called her Merlin." Mallory replied. She'd looked down at the cat and stroked her behind the ear.

"Can I hold her?" Samara asked. Mallory thought for a moment, then passed the kitten over to Samara. As soon as Samara reached for her, the cat hissed and struggled out of Mallory's grasp. She went running off and Mallory had to run over to catch her.

"That's odd," Mallory said. "She doesn't normally act like this. She's usually pretty friendly..."

Samara looked up at Mallory from under the veil of her hair. "I'm sorry. Animals don't like me sometimes. The horses didn't like me either, back at home." She didn't tell Mallory exactly what had happened to those horses - she didn't want to scare her. Or make her sad. Anna had been sad, but it hadn't been Samara's fault that it had happened. The horses had just gone crazy as soon as Samara had gone near them. If they hadn't sent her to live in the barn, then the horses wouldn't have died. But maybe Richard and Anna would have instead.

"I really don't know why that happened... You weren't hurting her or anything, but she just went mental..." Mallory was still rambling as she carried the kitten back in her arms. Samara didn't want to listen to her.

"So, how have lessons been going for you?" John asked.

Samara tilted her head and thought about it. "I think they've been going pretty well."

"Which ones are your favourite?"

Samara took a moment to think again. "Charms," she said. "And transfiguration. And potions, as well. Astronomy's nice; I like the night."

"What about Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology and History of Magic?" John asked. "You left them out. They're the only ones you left out."

"Herbology could be good. I like plants. I don't like History of Magic. It's dull." It was the most Samara had said in a while.

"So you haven't had Herbology yet, then?" John asked.

Samara shook her head. "We haven't had Defence either."

"So, other than History of Magic, are there any classes you've actually had that you don't like?" Mallory asked. Her cat seemed perfectly calm again, curled up in her lap and purring as she absently stroked the soft dark fur, but Samara knew that if she were to try to go anywhere close to the cat, it would run. And it would run in any direction, only caring about getting away from Samara, not about worrying for other threats. It was a good thing there weren't any cliffs nearby. Samara was sure that Mallory would be heartbroken if her cat threw herself off one. Just like Anna had been about the horses.

Samara shook her head. "Not really." she said. "Most of them are good." Of course they were; this was a magic school, most of it was good. What could be bad about magic? Then again, it was magic that has caused Samara's power, wasn't it? And that had caused some bad thing to happen.

After a while longer of talking with the group Samara felt thoroughly exhausted. It wasn't that Samara didn't like to talk to them; she did. But after she talked to other people for a long time she grew tired. She needed rest, she needed some time she could be alone. Even now, when she was getting better at this, when she had forced herself to get used to the people almost constantly surrounding her, she needed a break. As soon as she was able she got up quickly said goodbye to the four of them and walked off. The cat seemed very pleased.

Samara sat by the lake and took some of her books from her bag. Studying wouldn't have sounded particularly fun, but this was magic. It was interesting. And the more Samara used magic, the more control Samara seemed to have over her powers. That was a good thing, not only for her, but for everyone else.

Samara had been reading for only about ten minutes when she felt her book being grabbed roughly from her hands. The girl who had grabbed it then threw it as hard as she could - it landed in the water. Another girl would have shouted, argued, tried to demand the meaning of this. But Samara had never been one for shouting. Her fury manifested in different ways.

She glared up at the girl from under her hair. The girl seemed to become nervous, looked almost like she was going to back away, but she stood there still. She shouted at Samara, trying to cover her fear with anger. Samara noticed it was the same Slytherin girl she had seen a couple of times now. She tried hard to rein in her anger and not to hurt this girl, although right now she had a hard time trying to understand why she shouldn't.

"Artemis! What are you doing?" Another girl had walked up to them, a blonde haired, green-eyed Slytherin.

"What, you're trying to play the hero? Come on, Lucretia, that's not you. You're not one of those pathetic Gryffindor's with a hero complex, are you?" Artemis, as the other girl had called her, seemed half mad with anger. Samara didn't know why she was still doing this. She'd only hurt her once, it hadn't happened again, it wouldn't happen again, why was she still doing this? She hadn't wanted anything bad to happen when she came here; she'd wanted everything to be good. But of course not everything could be good, could it? There had to be something bad to balance it out. This was the something bad, clearly. Samara was really starting to hate this girl. Not just dislike her, but actually hate.

"I'm not acting like a Gryffindor! I think you're the one who's pathetic. You're trying to sabotage this girl's work, why exactly?"

"Because she cursed me in the corridor, completely unprovoked! She's dangerous!" Artemis snapped. She advanced on Samara, who backed away, caught by surprise. Lucretia pulled her back.

"Really? I'd be quite impressed if a first year muggle-born knew how to correctly perform a curse already. You're making it up, I bet. You always did do that a lot."

"I'm not lying! I know what happened... what I felt, what I saw... It was real." Artemis still seemed angry, but Samara could tell she was scared. She could recognise fear quite well, since she'd spent so long living with other people being afraid of her.

"Artemis. Go away. Let me talk to this girl." Artemis looked like she was going to say something, shout or try a spell, but she took one look a Samara's face, and at Lucretia's, and she seemed to realise there was no way she could win. She stalked off, trying to look as dignified as she could after her tantrum.

Samara was shaking, and her head hurt. She felt tears stinging in her eyes, but she didn't feel sad. She still felt angry, though also drained from the effort of trying to control her powers. She felt terrible. But she hadn't hurt the girl this time. That was the one good thing she could think of. She turned to the other girl, Lucretia.

"Can I borrow your book until I get a new one? I really need it to do my homework." It was an effort to get the words out and Samara could hear the strain in her voice. Her heart was racing.

"Which subject is it for?" Lucretia asked.

"Potions..." Samara said, not sure whether Lucretia had agreed to give her the book or not.

"Here," Lucretia said as she passes it to Samara. "You really don't want that homework to be late."

"Thanks." Samara said. She sat down and tried to read again but she found that she just wasn't in the mood.

Lucretia seemed to notice that she wasn't really doing anything. "So, why's Artemis going after you. I mean, she does that, but usually she has at least a small reason. What was it?"

"I don't know," Samara lied. She couldn't tell Lucretia the truth, not when she hadn't even told Natalie. But it didn't matter; lying came easily nought to her. It wasn't like people had even listened when she did tell the truth.

"So what's your name? I'm Lucretia, but Artemis already said my name, so you probably knew."

"I'm Samara." Samara didn't say anything else. She wasn't hugely talkative at the best of time, but right now she really wasn't feeling like she wanted to talk at all. She packed up the books that hadn't been thrown into the Black Lake and headed back to the castle. She was sure she'd feel better after a rest in the library; it was quiet there. No one could hurt her there.

I'm getting the hang of this updating thing, aren't I? I actually updated in a week! Yay! And it's the longest chapter yet, as well. I'm really on a roll. Hopefully, I'll be able to have the next chapter up next week.