Child Of Darkness

Chapter 3

Hermione POV

“Ok, fine. Maybe she is a bit mean, but not evil!” Harry relented, “I mean, she could have been brought up in a really bad family, and not know how to behave any different!”

He brought up a fair point, but it really didn’t excuse her behaviour. She didn’t even try apologizing later, and still hasn’t.

“That first encounter with her may have gone a bit awry but could have been fixed. But, do you remember that time last year? She was terrifying!” I countered. “She didn’t attack us, but remember how everyone was crowding around Smith in the Hospital Wing?”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, look at this! The itty-bitty dark witch-in-training is reading a little book.” Zacharias Smith taunted, his head looming over a book Nerissa was reading as she strolled down the corridor and stared at her with a smirk.

Titters of “he’s going to get himself killed” and “such an idiot” spread like wildfire around the steadily enlarging crowd.

Smith, the idiot that he was, had decided that Nerissa’s fearsome reputation was all a fake, and was now attempting to bully her. At this point, Nerissa was already running through all the possible scenarios of what would ensue and prepared for the worst.

“Coward, are you? You’re such an idiot! How did you get sorted into Ravenclaw again? Threaten the hat with your Granddaddy who’s locked up in prison? Hmm?” Smith continued, oblivious to the crowd of people surrounding him.

“Well, Smith, I would wonder how you got into Hufflepuff, then I realised that the hat must have gone through a process of elimination! Too cowardly to be a Gryffindor, not ambitious enough to be a Slytherin, and well, it’s obvious why you’re not a Ravenclaw. Too dumb. Like taunting me.” Nerissa drawled slowly.

Zacharias Smith now had a tiny glint of fear in his eyes, and said, “You can’t do anything! I’ve never even seen you cast a spell! All you do is hide behind your grandfather’s reputation!” his voice had taken on a slightly squeaky quality now.

“Well, of course you haven’t. You’ve never had a DADA, Transfiguration, or Charms lesson with me. The only classes you share with me are Flying and Potions. I’ll show you some spells I can do now then, how about that?” Nerissa replied.

An even larger crowd had gathered by now, and it seemed like Snape had come too, peering on at the duo with quiet amusement in his cold, dark eyes.

Impedimenta!” Nerissa pronounced, her wand flipping lightning-fast towards the panicked Zacharias.

He stopped in his tracks, unable to keep backing away. Her eyes slowly revolved in horror towards Nerissa’s wand. Nerissa liked this feeling. She felt powerful, like she was above everyone else in this pitiful place. She no longer was a shy girl scared of the monsters hiding under her bed. No. She had become the monster, hiding, lurking, pouncing at the smallest sign of weakness in others. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, but she couldn’t stop. She revelled in the fear of others, in the fear of what she was doing, was doing at that moment, and what she would do in the future. Students feared what she had done, teachers feared what she would do, but the person who feared what she was doing at the present was herself. She feared what would happen to her if the darkness overtook her, the darkness of which she controlled, and what would happen if to her only friends at Camp. Sure, call her selfish, but she would admit it. She would destroy the world to keep her friends safe, but most importantly, unknowing. Unknowing of the hate and spite and jealousy bubbling inside of her, just waiting to explode.

“Flipendo,” Nerissa pronounced in a soft, deadly tone.

Many people were staring at this rather one-sided duel by now, all waiting in a horrified anticipation at what was to come. Zacharias was thrown backwards and crashed into a wall. He winced, and tried to get up, consequently failing.

So many spells she could use. The Cruciatus Curse, for maximum damage and therefore, satisfaction? No, she would be expelled, causing her quest to be a failure. She could not stand failing. The Entrail-Expelling Curse for similar reasons? No, like the pros of this spell, the cons were also similar to the Cruciatus Curse. This entire thought process took just over ten seconds. Everyone in the vicinity had turned to look at her and Zacharias now, Snape still there with that slightly cruel glint in his eyes.

 However, Filch had come hobbling along with Mrs Norris.

“Oi! No spells in the corri-“ he started.

“Silencio. Mucus ad Nauseam,” Nerissa said, pointing his wand at him, not even turning to look in his direction.

She allowed herself a small smirk at her work, before turning back to the job at hand.

“Diffindo,” she said in that same calm, measured, yet still deadly tone.

Zacharias let out a shout and stared down at the red liquid blossoming out in stark contrast to his black robes in alarm.

“Adflictio animus,” Nerissa said in a voice even quieter yet even more terrifying.

This time, Zacharias screamed. He screamed in pure pain and agony, even though no clear wound was visible.

Louder and more pain-filled the screaming got until Nerissa finally looked the boy straight in the eye and said, “Confuto.”

It stopped with an abrupt halt, the boy lay dazed and scared on the stone floor with a pool of scarlet spreading beneath him, while Nerissa turned and stalked away, a cruel, twisted smirk on her face. Everyone was staring at her, almost in disbelief and horror, but most notably, Snape had an expression of surprise, before it settled into its usual blank mask.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, once she reached the Ravenclaw dormitories, she found her own which was luckily, empty, cast her own variation on Silencio which blocked all noise coming from her room and screamed. She broke down on the covers on her bed, with only one thing on her mind. Why? Why had she done that! She was meant to be the hero. Heroes don’t torture people until they scream in agony! Imagine what Percy would do if he found out. Or Nico. Nico had already mastered his darkness, could harness it and hadn’t broken down in years. So why did she?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N So if last chapter was a slightly darker side of Nerissa, then this is? I have no idea what this is.