Samara the Witch

Chapter Eight

Samara had mixed feelings about going to her next lesson. It was her first Herbology lesson, with the Slytherins. It wasn't the lesson itself that she was nervous about - she was excited about it, actually. The first lesson might not be that interesting, but she was sure that she'd learn something. If not now, then soon. She was really looking forward to the practical lessons. It was so much more fun to do actual magic rather than simply studying it, although she enjoyed that too. She so preferred Hogwarts to living at the Morgan Ranch. No, she wasn't worried about the lesson. What she was a little concerned about was who they would be having the class with. f te Slters were ts lesso. Artemis would be there. The thought of meeting her there again made Samara's heart sink. Artemis shouldn't be any more than an annoyance, but it was very easy to make Samara angry. And it wasn't good for her to be angry. True, Natalie would be there, and she might help Samara - but Samara wasn't going to count on it. Natalie was hardly a close friend; Samara barely knew her, and had only latched onto her because Natalie tolerated her. Even that - tolerance - was something Samara hadn't had for a while. No one had wanted her around. Someone even slightly willing to put up with her was a good thing. For such a long time in her life no one had truly cared for her - Anna had, but she'd been dead for years now. And even when she wasn't, towards the end, she had begun to hate Samara. Everyone had. While Samara didn't really know for sure that Natalie really liked her, she didn't hate her. That was enough for her.

The class was becoming clamorous already and Samara didn't like that one bit. She sometimes thought speech was one of the most awful inventions of mankind. Not that there were many inventions of theirs Samara didn't loathe with every fibre of her being. She thought on occasion that the world would be better without any people on it at all. It would be so much more peaceful. Well, peaceful apart from things like volcanoes, floods, earthquakes... Hm. Maybe it wouldn't be quite so peaceful as Samara had thought it would. But at least there would be no more talking.

Samara felt the presence of the girl behind her before she ever saw or heard her. Her first thought was that it would be Artemis, come to terrorise her some more. But when she turned her head, eyes wide with panic, she was surprised to see Lucretia.

"What do you want?" she said, really not trying to come off quite as hostile as she had.

"Um... I just need a person today. A person to sit next to and stuff. For some reason, most of the girls in my house seem to hate me." Lucretia said, as if everyone hating her was a mundane, ordinary thing that had no right to be remarked upon. Samara wondered if she'd sound a similar way if she tried to say the same.

"I'm waiting for someone..." Samara said. She didn't mean to turn Lucretia away. She just didn't really want to talk to her. She didn't really want to talk to anyone. In general, Samara preferred to just sink away, hiding herself from the world and keeping her head down. It would be a perfect world if there were no other people in it. For a minute Samara thought about how she could achieve that, but stopped the train of thought completely when she realised that she was genuinely considering killing every person in the world. She told herself that it hadn't been serious. She was just idly thinking, it was nothing more than an admittedly distasteful expression of her annoyance at having to talk to people when she didn't want to. But as much as she told herself that, she knew it wasn't entirely true. She had the capacity in her to hurt people. As much as it scared her, she knew it. It was futile to deny it. She hardly ever did it on purpose, but she did. It didn't matter whether it was deliberate or not.

But although she had been waiting for Natalie, when she saw her coming her blood ran cold and her anger flared. She hadn't expected to see her come walking in with Artemis. This couldn't be right. Natalie had seen Artemis with Samara before, in the Great Hall, she knew who she was. So why was she with her now?

Lucretia seemed to notice Samara looking. "Was that who you were waiting for?"

Samara nodded.

"I take it you don't want to work with her now."

Samara shook her head. She wasn't going anywhere near Artemis, even to talk to Natalie.

Lucretia smiled. "Great. Now I have someone to work with. I mean, not that it's great for you. I'm sure you're quite annoyed... You know, I'm not always great at expressing what I mean."

Samara had noticed, but she was barely listening. She was looking over at Natalie and Artemis, who were talking and laughing like friends. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her hands were white and her nails were leaving crescent shaped cuts on her skin. Not because she wanted to hurt them - but because she didn't. It was so hard to control her powers sometimes. It had got easier. This place itself seemed to have a calming effect on her power, not to mention that using magic used it up. But just because it had got easier, it didn't mean it was easy. Controlling so much power could never be easy.

"Samara?"

Samara looked back around at Lucretia, who was gazing at her curiously, head cocked to the side. "What?" Her voice sounded far colder than she'd meant it to. She couldn't help it. Although she didn't want to hurt Natalie, or even Artemis, she couldn't stop the feeling that she really did. Feelings were not something controllable. They were something wild, beyond her influence. That wouldn't be a problem, except more often than not, her actions were influenced by said feelings. And unlike mere feelings, actions had consequences.

She tried her best to ignore Natalie and Artemis, focusing on the lesson and when she needed to, Lucretia. But it didn't work that well. It may have been a bit more successful if it wasn't for the fact that they kept shooting glances in her direction and giggling to each other like there was some joke Samara had missed. Like she was the joke. Laughing shouldn't have hurt so much, but it stung Samara to the core every time she heard it. What did they even find so funny? It wasn't anything Samara could see.

Samara had been excited about this lesson, about learning something new, but now she was already wishing to get away. She didn't like the way Natalie and Artemis were whispering to each other. Were they whispering about her? She knew that she wasn't close to Natalie to start with, but she still felt betrayed. She'd hoped that she finally had someone she could call a friend. But if she was really her friend, she wouldn't be talking to Artemis. Some part of Samara was telling her that this was her fault, all her fault, she should have been able to stop herself from hurting Artemis... But that wasn't completely true. She didn't know why Artemis couldn't just let it go. That's what she would have done.

Sigh. Another short chapter. I was hoping to be able to write a longer one this time, but that was the natural place to end... I'll try to write the next chapter a bit faster. Thanks to explodingninja for pestering me to write, I'm sure I would have taken much longer to write this if it wasn't for that, although I do wish she'd pester me in reviews as well...