House of Black

Into the Lair

The rest of the week passed by far too quickly for my liking and before I knew it the day had come for me to become the Slytherin maid, from the moment I woke up my stomach felt like it was full of lead balls and my blood was spiked with anxiety.

I would be wandless, defenceless, at their mercy.

'Hey.' Ginny gently shook me from my trance, and I tore my eyes away from the table to look at her. 'Eat your toast – don't give me that "I'm not hungry" shit, if you're going to go into the snake pit you need your energy.'

I sighed heavily, knowing that she was right and took a vicious bite out of my toast, I liked it with butter and raspberry jam but today it tasted like cardboard. To keep Ginny happy, I ate two slices and drained my pumpkin juice before grabbing a banana to eat on my way to the meeting point. I wasn't sure who would be escorting me to the Slytherin common room, but I hoped it wouldn't be Astoria.

My heart skipped a beat and I almost choked on my banana when I saw a familiar blonde form, she whirled around at the noise and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was Daphne and not her sister. I leaned against a wall to finish my banana and she took in my Muggle outfit with a small smile.

'You don't make life easy for yourself do you.'

I shrugged my shoulders and threw my banana peel into a nearby bin.

'It's really hard to clean in robes you know, my goal is to get in and out of here as fast as fucking possible.'

Daphne's eyes widened a fraction at that, and she rubbed her arm awkwardly. I groaned as I realised there was something I hadn't been told.

'What is it?' I asked quietly.

'The Carrows have decided you can't leave our quarters until you have everything cleaned.'

She sounded almost apologetic, her sapphire blue eyes shined with an emotion I was unused to seeing the Slytherins express, remorse.

Before I could fully process this Daphne had grabbed my arm and gently dragged me to a nearby classroom, she pulled me inside and shut the door. The entire situation was weird but what sent my head spinning was the sight of Blaise Zabini perched against one of the desks with his arms folded and his handsome face set in a bored expression.

'Zabini.' I greeted coolly, never one to be rude.

'Let's get this over with.' he pushed away from the table and made his way towards me, stopping mere feet away.

'Let's get what over with exactly?' my voice held an edge, but I couldn't help it, Gryffindor and Slytherin weren't known to be besties.

'Contrary to what you might believe not all Slytherin's want to follow him. Some of us are just trying to get by until we can escape.' Daphne's soft voice echoed around the classroom.

I cocked my head at her, I knew that better than most, my dad had been the black sheep of the Black's and had escaped to the Potter's at the first opportunity, a bittersweet smile crossed my lips at the thought of him before I shook my head clear of those thoughts.

'I get that, but you still haven't answered my question.'

'I like you Callie, nobody except me has ever stood up to my sister like that and I respect that. I can't say that it didn't bring me the teensiest bit of joy to see her taken down a peg or two – I'll deny ever saying that by the way – but Tori is crazy, and she will come after you this weekend, she'll recruit her little band of admirers to help and you're unarmed. I asked Blaise to help me because he's much more advanced at protection charms than I am.'

She seemed almost afraid of my reaction, but I could see why, I couldn't help but be suspicious but something deep in my gut told me to trust them and in truth I would be foolish not to accept some inside help.

'Why are you helping me?' I asked after some time.

'Because none of this is fair, none of us asked for any of this to happen and I'll be damned if I sit back and do nothing when I know what my house is capable of.' Daphne's words held a deeper meaning, some inside knowledge out of my reach.

'What about you?' I asked Blaise.

'You called me handsome, does wonders for the ego.' he supplied simply.

A startled laugh burst from my throat, it bordered on hysterical but there was no reigning it in, neither of them said anything until eventually I was able to take a breath.

'Sorry, I never knew Slytherin's could be funny. We should probably get on with it.'

Blaise nodded and took a step towards me, it was slow, but I still had to resist the urge to step back and sprint for the door. Before I could process what was happening, he had taken his wand out, muttered an unfamiliar incantation and touched his wand to the top of my head. My skin erupted in tingles, not unpleasant but so unfamiliar that it bordered on uncomfortable, Zabini whispered for me to give it a second to subside before moving and I did.

'It should last for the weekend, if you think that it's worn off find a way to slip me a message and I'll figure out a way to reapply it.'

The strangeness of the situation hit me once again, to be in a room with Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass like this, a union of sorts between two Slytherin's and a Gryffindor, it was unheard of, instead of voicing these thoughts I thanked them both and allowed Daphne to lead me the rest of the way. There was a cleaning caddy of Muggle supplies sitting outside the entrance to the common room and I picked it up carefully as I heard Daphne hiss the password.

Within minutes I had entered a pit of snakes, most of whom had dark intentions towards me because of my assumed blood status or my house.

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that I was a lioness, I was a Black and I would bow to no one.

These fuckers had no idea what they were in for.