"Blind her Henrietta" the brown haired girl murmured when they got to the end of a corridor with a seeming dead end. There was just a grey brick wall, "I don't want her to see what happens next". Her heart rate quickened, and she opened her mouth to speak but before she could do, the other girl, an older looking girl with black hair and piercing blue blue eyes- presumably Henrietta-, flicked her wand with practiced ease.
The effect was immediate, and terrifying, this time everything went pitch black, her ears were covered, as if her head had been pushed underwater. Furthermore, her mouth could not open, as if had been taped shut, she once again could not scream or shout. Hands grabbed Lara's shoulders—one rough and painful, the other oddly gentle—jerking her forward as she struggled to resist, though blind and deaf. Her heart pounded and tears welled as they climbed a few steps, then stopped; the grips released, and silence swallowed her whole. Time dragged as she stood frozen, breaths shallow, fear rising. What terrified her most wasn't what the Slytherins might do, but the thought they'd already left her—trapped alone in darkness and silence, just like the mist back at Durmstrang.
Then, the charm lifted.
Lara's heart sank as her gaze swept the room, it was the same dark brick of the dungeons, the hogwarts- dungeon she thought. She stood in the center of a circle, surrounded by students who watched her with expressions that ranged from disdain to cold amusement. All of them wore the same glinting emerald crest. Slytherins.
An ominous, older dark haired boy stepped out of the circle, and walked towards her into the centre. He was tall, -unnervingly tall- and broad shouldered, but moved slowly, making his dark robe billow behind him. He stopped just short of Lara, his sharp eyes narrowing as he looked her up and down, his lips curling into a faint sneer. "Warrington," he said, his deep voice carrying a quiet authority that silenced the mocking whispers from the circle. "The name is Warrington."
One girl in the same year as Lara coughed, a small trickle of blood spilled out on her hands, which she quickly wiped away on her dark cloak. Lara's hands started trembling, as she looked around at Warrington and the circle. "What do you want?" she asked, too scared to look Warrington in his eyes. He didn't answer right away. Instead, he began circling her slowly, his polished boots clicking softly against the stone floor. The other Slytherins' eyes followed him in silent deference, their expressions carefully guarded, as though waiting for his permission to react. "I am the leader of the Iron Covenant," he finally announced, his tone measured and deliberate. "We are a pureblood society. We aim to help and support one another in every way possible."
He paused, his gaze lingered on the Hufflepuff crest over Lara's heart, and his lip curled in thinly veiled disgust. "While we do not usually... extend invitations to others"—he practically spat the word—"certain circumstances have made it... inevitable". The word dripped with disdain, drawn out slowly as though even uttering it pained him. Lara wanted to say that she also much rather not be there, but instead be sound asleep in her bed, but was too scared to say anything, perhaps if she kept her head down and did what they said-...
"Daphne?" Warrington said, while still scanning Lara with his judgemental eyes from her brown leather boots, her pink pyjama trousers, her hufflepuff jumper, and finally her blonde hair. It was a stark contrast with the others, who wore rich woolen robes made of varying shades of dark colours. "you can do the initiation".
The girl who had coughed earlier stepped forward, a determined look on her face, despite everything, she looked kind. Her brown hair fell down her shoulders, and her bangs framed her eyes, which pierced into Lara, making Daphne seem much older than a 15 year old girl. She held out her hand, "Give me your finger" Daphne whispered in an urgent but kind voice, Lara obeyed, her hand trembling. It didn't even occur to her to protest.
At the sight of her hand trembling, several people laughed and scolded, amongst them the girl with auburn hair who had taken her from her bed tonight and who had squeezed her arm so hard when she was blinded. With utmost efficiency, Daphne quickly took a needle and pinched it into Lara's pointing finger. A small trickle of blood appeared. Memories of Durmstrang surged forward—dark rituals, whispers of blood magic, and the unspoken horrors that came with it. Having learned first hand the dangers it could cause, she jerked her hand back, quickly putting her finger back into her pocket; she did not want to do this, whatever this was.
The others in the circle laughed, the sound booming and echoing in the dungeon, taking her defiance as weakness. "she is too weak to even be able to bear the pain of a tiny little prick" said a much older boy standing on her left. Warrington looked at him with a warning "Keep it down Malfoy, no talking during the initiation".
But Lara used the distraction to think quickly, as she did so she noticed something that she didn't notice before. Behind the circle, in the shadows stood a statue of a witch, the witch was crouched over around a symbol. In her hand she held 3 circles forming a sphere, within it was a light source, and a lock. The look in the statue's eyes gave her the courage to fight, but with a twist of faith, her heart sank as she realised that her wand was still laying on her nightstand in the Hufflepuff common room. She grasped in her pyjama pocket for her wand and to her utmost dismay found it empty.
Courage sparked faintly in her chest, but her heart sank as reality crushed it.
No wand. No magic. Just me.
She bolted.
The motion was so sudden it sent the circle into chaos. Lara barreled through the Slytherins, shoving aside the laughing girl with the auburn hair and knocking others off balance. Her boots pounded against the stone floor, the echo of her steps mingling with the shouts of outrage rising behind her. "Stop her!" someone yelled.
But then Warrington's voice cut through the uproar, calm and commanding. "Let her go". Once again, as he spoke, the room went quiet and obeyed.
Lara didn't stop to question it. She kept running, even as his next words sent a shiver down her spine. "We already have what we need".
