(Samuel Lestrange Pov)
…
After waking up earlier than everyone in the Gryffindor common room and beginning to practice the spells in the book McGonagall had given him, he had made a bit of progress on quickly transfiguring shields. Not enough to use practically, it had only been one day after all. However, he was on the right track. Sam had also begun reading the book on Animagus transformation, and had some idea of what the ritual entailed. Morning training went well since he had plenty of time to himself in an empty classroom close to the Gryffindor common room.
…
Fucking Hell! The morning was going so well!
Currently, Sam was running for his life through the halls of Hogwarts with his wand firmly grasped in his right hand. His bag and robes fluttered behind him as he sprinted from three sixth years who were currently casting a barrage of stinging hexes at him. Sam looked back and saw a bright purple flash of light heading straight for his back.
"Protego!" Sam screamed in his mind as he swatted the bright purple light to the right. Causing it to explode onto one of the paintings.
"Aarghhggh, what the bloody hell is going on!" the painting of an old wizard screamed
Sam merely kept running, he saw two more beams of light rocket towards him. Sam quickly rolled out of the way, hopped up and kept running.
He was in a pretty good mood today despite his circumstances, so as he ran he laughed heartily at his pursuers who continued to fail to hit him with various multicolored jets of light that flew from their wands.
Little exercise on the way to breakfast. Not to shabby Sam, not too bad. Just don't get hit!
Sam quickly rounded a corner, and as he did a bright red stunner exploded on the wall right next to where he was just standing.
"Phew! Cutting it close there Sammy cutting it close!" He screamed in his mind as he continued running
He was getting close to the great hall, and these idiots had been chasing him for a while. They were beginning to slow down a bit.
Sam continued to sprint and various lights exploded around him. The sound of 6th years screaming various spells echoed throughout the ancient halls of Hogwarts.
"Reducto!" One of the 6th years screamed.
Sam quickly looked back as he saw the bright blue cone-shaped light speeding towards him.
Fuck!
Sam quickly conjured his shield, and the blue light exploded onto it, showering him in bright blue magical sparks. While he was stalled, three more huge jets of light rocketed towards him, accompanied by the screaming voices of the students behind him trying to catch up. The three spells exploded onto the conjured shield, blasting Sam back several feet.
"Dang that was close!" Sam screamed in his mind as he began laughing maniacally at their pathetic attempts to harm him. Sam quickly rolled out of his fall and continued running.
As he was running, he noticed a group of first years heading in the same direction. Sam laughed heartily, flipped off the 6th years, and screamed, "You lot are trash wizards. Can't even hit a little first year!"
Their faces twisted in anger as they fired a barrage of spells in his direction. All you could hear was the voices of 6th-years screaming spells and the sound of various spells rocketing towards the handsome young boy.
As Sam approached the group, he noticed it was the Potter crew, and recognized Neville walking with them. Sam smiled and got a very evil idea; he began laughing heartily as he sped up, quickly approaching Neville, who was standing frozen in place, watching the spectacle in front of him.
Three bright purple stinging hexes rocketed towards Sam from behind. Sam quickly got ready to dodge as he ran straight for Neville and leap-frogged over his head. All three stinging hexes slammed into and exploded onto Neville's body and face. Bright purple sparks showered the hallway as Neville clutched his face and screamed like a little girl.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Neville screamed in a high-pitched tone as his face and hands began swelling.
Sam laughed heartily at Neville's plight. "You fucking idiots hit the wrong bloke! Friendly-Fire assholes!" He screamed as he continued to run.
Alyssum, Harry, and Ron quickly ran over to help Neville as Sam turned another corner, leaving Potter's crew behind and reached a crowd of people trying to enter the great hall for breakfast. Sam quickly slipped into the crowd, and stopped running in front of the massive doors that were the entrance to the great hall.
He was panting, trying to catch his breath. His hands clutched both of his knees. He had so much adrenaline before, but now that he was safe, he realized just how much his lungs were on fire. He had run forever, and he felt sick to his stomach, like he was about to puke.
Whatever, it's just a bit more exercise than I usually do in the mornings.
Sam, still panting and face beet red, put his wand in the pocket of his robes. Then, he began smoothing them over and fixing his hair. When he was finally done, he took a deep breath and strolled into the Great Hall for breakfast.
He saw Professor Snape, and McGonagall chatting with each other over breakfast. He smiled and nodded to the both of them, and they nodded back, returning to their traditional English breakfast.
Sam quickly found a spot to eat closest to the teachers and began to sit and serve himself. He noticed three figures appear in the entrance of the great hall. All three of their faces were beet red and they looked pissed. Each one of them was staring at Sam like they wanted to murder him as they tried to catch their breaths. Sam merely flashed a bright smile and held up his glass of orange juice in a toast to them.
If looks could kill, Sam would be dead a million times over. It's too bad these idiots didn't have that power. Sam merely chuckled and went back to his breakfast.
Douchebags! It's times like this I'm quite grateful for my training. If I didn't have any like Draco, I'd be so fucked.
As Sam ate his English breakfast, he planned out what he needed.
So after class, I will speak to Snape. I will see if I can get a mandrake leaf from him. I'll get the rest of the materials from him later, I've got a whole month to get everything together. I'm not too worried. I'll discuss my allegiance to him and also blame my interest in the Animagus transformation on my fear of greyback and wanting to get around unnoticed. Should work.
Sam continued calmly eating his food. It was delicious this morning. He reached across the table and got an extra helping of sausages. Suddenly, he noticed more people staring at him from the Slytherin table. He looked up and saw Crabbe and Goyle looking at him like they wanted to murder him. They both looked completely unharmed, almost like the incident where he rearranged their faces didn't even happen. So, Sam sent a cheeky wink their way and went back to enjoying his breakfast.
Anyways there's a full moon in exactly three days, so I can start the Animagus thing soon. It doesn't sound to hard, but it seems really long and annoying. Please dear Merlin, let me have a cockroach as my spirit animal. Nothing big, otherwise it would have all been for nothing. Maybe it would be useful for not ending up as a werewolf, but still. I really hope this solves my problem. Anyways, I'll go down and check the third floor tonight as well. I really can't imagine it being too dangerous, I mean this is a school for children right.
Sam scanned the teacher's table and noticed Professor Quirrell staring unusually long at what looked like Harry Potter.
Sam snorted in his mind, "Looks like Mr. Potter caught himself a secret admirer."
Potter didn't seem to notice Quirrell gazing at him like a viper, instead Harry was focused on him with an angry look on his face. Sam looked at the people around him, and everyone he was walking with this morning was staring at Sam angrily. This time Sam just rolled his eyes, noticing Longbottom wasn't with them.
Jeez, too many annoying gits want me dead these days.
Samuel sighed and ran his fingers through his black and white hair.
Let them come, then.
…
Time quickly passed, and soon it was time for McGonagall's class. He really enjoyed her lecture and flawlessly performed the transfiguration she had assigned before anyone else without even trying. He paid his respects to her after class and left with a smile. Unbeknownst to her, he had plans, big plans.
Today is a good day.
Sam went from class to class and did really well in each one. Even charms which was his worst subject, and Herbology which he gave zero shits about.
Eventually, he made it to double potions with Slytherin. His last class of the day. From the moment he stepped inside, he felt Crabbe and Goyle's angry eyes boring into him.
If these two idiots try and come after me again, it might be best just to kill them. Pull the weeds from the roots.
Sam thought to himself with a vicious gleam in his eye. A slight pressure began releasing itself from him, as he stared back at Crabbe and Goyle who felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand up.
"Thank you for finally gracing the class with your presence Mr. Lestrange. Please take a seat next to our favorite celebrity's sister." Snape said in a monotone voice
Sam was quickly snapped back to the present moment as the dangerous pressure retreated back into him. "Ah, thank you, professor. It's a pleasure to be here." Sam said calmly, looking into Severus' eyes.
Suddenly, Sam felt something begin to tickle his mental shields. So he clamped down on them and tightly locked his mind. Once Snape felt he couldn't breach his mind with a gentle touch, Sam felt Snape ram into his mind with a Legilimency attack of only moderate strength. He quickly made his way to his seat next to Alyssum as Snape continued to smash into the walls guarding his mind.
Merlin! I missed Severus.
Sam continued to brave Snape's onslaught of mental attacks as he pulled out his chair and politely nodded to Alyssum with a blank emotionless expression on his face. Once he sat in his chair, he looked back to Snape who slowly ramped up the pressure in his mind. The first line of mental shields began to crack, but he had been practicing since he and Snape had last seen each other. So he quickly used mental energy to begin filling the cracks. Snapes moderately skilled onslaught pulled back to gather itself for another tidal wave attack. So, in the split second it pulled back Sam used his mental energy to form large spikes on the outside of his first wall.
Then the tidal wave struck, and slammed into his shields with at least four times the force from before. Sam gripped his forehead in pain as his mind was throbbing. His wall began to shatter under the intense shock of Severus's tidal wave. Severus deftly weaved his energy around the rows of deadly spikes that covered the outer wall of Sam's mind.
Sam's mind was merely divided into three parts, the outer wall which blocked his surface thoughts from the outer world. The center wall which is where he has all of his unimportant memories and academic knowledge housed. Most were organized deftly so he could easily pull on them when he needed. Then the third wall surrounded all the important thoughts and memories. All of his trauma, and everything that pertained to the dark lord was in there. Each of his plans, and the knowledge of the darkest magics he knew was in that section Each organized in dark bubbles, and easily accessible if one understood his mind well. In the dead center was the door to his subconscious. That was the door that must be protected at all costs, because if someone truly skilled was able to gain access to it the consequences would be disastrous.
Sam felt the outer wall creak and groan under the pressure, as he tried to use his mental energy to repair it as fast as it was being destroyed. However, this was a losing battle. Sam felt several streams of mental energy rush into the First Zone in his mind. Each of the streams quickly coalesced together and began forming a powerful ball of foreign mental energy within his outer mind.
Then, all of the sudden, it stopped and Severus quickly pulled back all of his energy from Sam's mind. Leaving behind a dilapidated outer wall in the few minutes this had occurred.
It always frustrates me to find out he goes easy on me every time. He probably could have gotten into at least the second zone within a split second if he really tried.
Sam felt a deep chill travel down his spine as he felt like he was in the room with a massive beast.
Sam noticed a small smirk on Severus' face, which was about as much as you could get out of the stoic man. Snape quickly turned and began moving to the center of the classroom.
"What you did to Neville this morning was not okay." He heard a female voice say next to him.
Sam continued repairing his mental shields with an ice cold expression on his face as he looked over at the pretty girl sitting next to him with firey red hair.
Then he snorted and said, "How do you know I did that on purpose, he could have just gotten in the way. I was running for my life this morning, you know."
"I just know, okay." She said angrily
"So you just know, and despite having no real evidence you felt it prudent enough to accuse me at the beginning of class, despite the three sixth years trying to blow my head off this morning." He said
Ally's face turned bright red as an embarrassed expression flashed across her face. She quickly crossed her arms and turned away from him, "There were other places you could have run in the hallway, you know. You could at least apologize to Neville. He was stuck in the hospital wing all morning." She huffed
"Uh, no, I won't apologize for him being in the way." He replied in an annoyed tone as he continued working on his shields.
What is with this chick, jeez! Why does she even care so much anyway? It's just a couple of stinging hexes.
"Neville was really hurt from it. You should at least go check on him." She said her face was still pink, but now an angry expression was written on it.
"Well, it was just a few stinging hexes. They aren't that bad." He said
"Not that bad! Did you even see him after he was hit, he looked unrecognizable. Do you have no heart for anyone but yourself!" She said
Samuel leaned back and put both his hands up in resignation, "Whoa! calm down! don't forget where we are. We are in Snape's classroom; I don't want to lose any points.
"Screw your points!" She said loudly
"Language, Mrs. Potter. 10 points from Gryffindor," Severus said in a monotone voice from across the room
"Nice going," Sam said
"Hmph, I can't believe I felt bad for you," she said, clenching her fists and turning her gaze to Snape at the front of the classroom
Jeez, what's her problem? It's just Longbottom anyways. Who cares.
Sam shook his head and returned to focusing on the lecture once again.
Snape had a fascinating lecture that revolved around the Cats Eye potion, a potion that allowed the user to see in the dark and what each of the ingredients did. Snape's teaching style always enraptured Sam.
Eventually, class ended, and Sam watched Alyssum huff and stomp off.
Is she still angry with me? Jeez! Anyways, finally, I can get to snape.
Sam shook his head and calmly waited for everyone in the class to leave. Eventually, it was just Sam and the Sallow-faced Wizard with the hooked nose in the classroom.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence, Mr. Lestrange," Snape said
"Snape, please help me. I don't know what to do anymore. Nothing is going correctly; I was supposed to be in Slytherin with you. I need help, I'm scared, I need to get stronger, I met my parents and now I'm disgusted by them. Nothing makes sense anymore, Severus. I'm trying to survive, and I don't know if I want to serve the Dark Lord, if I will end up just like my mother. Everything I've ever known is a lie, Severus. Also, I don't know how I feel about you know what that time it keeps playing over and over in my head I don't know if I was ready Severus. I took something I can't give back, and I'm scared if everything everyone has told me is a lie, I won't be able to handle it. You are the only person left for me to turn to." Sam blurted out before he even knew what was happening, his eyes becoming slightly wet.
All of Sam's frustrations poured out of him in this massive mouthful. It was almost like he vomited, and just like vomiting, he felt a bit lighter after getting it all out in the open.
"Well, you certainly have quite a bit on your mind," Snape said in a monotone voice as he quickly moved to put his hand on Sam's shoulder.
"As far as your allegiance to the Dark Lord goes, you can not question this. Someone like you does not have the luxury of not serving. These are dangerous thoughts for men like us; you'd do well not to think about such things." Snape said seriously
"Bb-ut my mother and father, what about them? Everything I've ever heard about them is a lie; they were pathetic and disgusting, sir. I don't want to end up like them, and it seems more likely than not I will end up rotting in Azkaban forever." Sam said in a defeated tone
"Would it have helped anything had we told you your mother is deranged? Do not forget Azkaban changes people, you know." Snape said with a serious expression on his face
"The only option I see for myself to avoid a fate worse than death is figuring out some way to flee the country or becoming so strong even the dark lord would have to think twice before acting around me." Sam said
"I approve of this line of thinking Mr. Lestrange. Especially with your current proximity to Potter, if you prove to be an incredibly competent wizard you likely won't be discarded. A life of mediocrity means death for someone in your situation, fear is a powerful motivator. Use it well." Snape said
"Thank you, sir. I've been toying with this idea that it would be beneficial for me to become an unregistered Animagus like McGonagall in order to move around unnoticed by other students who may wish me harm." Sam said
"Indeed, perhaps it would be. If you are lucky anyways. If you are unlucky, it would be a waste of time. It would also be quite dangerous." Snape said stroking his chin.
I swear I'm the most-unlucky person I know but it's worth a shot.
"I know, but it'slike you said I have no choice but to get stronger. Plus, worst case, it gives me a trump card to use against Greyback. He won't be able to infect me with his filthy disease. All of his ilk should be put down like the dogs they are. They are just as filthy as some fucking mud blood or blood traitor." Sam said
Snape rolled his eyes, "Perhaps that would be quite useful. Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Positive sir. Do you think you could give me a few of the ingredients?" Sam asked
"Absolutely." Snape drawled as he walked back to one of his potions cabinets and pulled out a small wooden box. He opened it up and pulled out what looked to be a mandrake leaf. Snape wrapped it up for Sam, and returned gently placing the leaf in Sam's hands.
"You really have been giving those dunderheads the chance to put their galleons where their mouths are. Next time, try to avoid mutilating the children of death eaters. It's a bad look. Merlin forbid Crabbe and Goyle end up any stupider than they already are. " Snape said a slight smirk appeared on the man's face
Sam snorted at Snape's remarks, "I will exercise caution when dealing with the children of Death Eaters in the future. I know who I can and can't offend sir."
"Good. Now good luck with your extracurricular activities. I hope this cleared some things up for you. Also, do try not to let you know what affects you too much. You basically had no choice in the matter, try not to let it get to you. Nobody needs a weapon that feels guilty, you will become a sword for the Dark Lord in due time. You are improving rapidly and are miles ahead of any of your peers. As seen by you, putting several of them in the hospital wing this past week." Snape said seriously.
"Thank you, for everything. I don't know what I would do without you sir." Sam said as he bowed his head and slid the mandrake leaf into his schoolbag. Then Sam turned and left, with a complicated look on his face.
At least I can still trust Snape, he always knows what's best for me.
Alright let's go put this stuff in my trunk, then let's go search the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side.