Abandoned

Chapter 17: A New Teacher

The days had passed on faster than Lyria would have hoped. She'd been here 6 days and only had 8 left. After wandering around the library looking for something interesting to read, she gave up and pulled out her phone. She'd seen Bella walk into the dining room about a half an hour ago and wanted to do something fun. Lyria scrolled through her instagram mindlessly. Not looking up from her phone when she pushed the door open to the vast dining room with a table fit for 30 people.
"Hey Bella, wanna light the Weasel house on fire?" She asked, only semi kidding. She liked the twins but Ron was a thorn in her side. It was quiet in the room, but she still didn't look up. She'd stumbled upon a picture of Amelia in a mutual friends' feed. It hurt her to see the girl look so happy without her. Before she could think much of the odd silence she felt something at her feet. It was a snake, and a large on at that. It was beautiful, Lyria thought. She smiled down at the creature who was now sliding up her leg in line with Lyria's biggest tattoo.
"Well hello there, beautiful." She spoke to the snake in a language that she'd always known how to speak. The language of snakes. She never mentioned this to anyone after she'd heard all about the scandal with Harry and the Chamber of Secrets. Though it would  be fun to scare a few Gryffindors with it.
"Hello." It spoke back, the snake had an affectionate sort of tone in her voice. Lyria's smile grew wider and held her arm out for the snake to climb on when she'd reached the top of her leg, running out of room. A large part of her body was still on the floor even though she was wrapped thoroughly around the girl's leg.
"What is your name?" She asked, intrigued by the giant snake.
"Nagini." She hissed back. Lyria froze and her back when ridgid. She knew from a dusty book about the first war that Voldemort had a reticulated python with the same name. Lyria slowly drew her eyes up only to come face to face with a table full of death eaters and Voldemort himself. Lyria's eyes found Bellatrix and the Malfoy's who all looked terrified for the girl they had grown to deeply care for. Nobody got away with interrupting such an important meeting.
    Silver eyes met red. The blood color eyes were filled with interest and little hints of respect. The silver were stunned, but not afraid. Lyria quickly regained her sense and bowed low to the powerful man.
"My lord, it's an honor to be in your presence." She said with perfect politeness. He nodded appreciatively. He did not care what she said, he was only focused on this interesting girl who spoke the language of snakes. Few outside the Gaunt family had been known to speak parseltongue. Bellatrix spoke up then.
"My lord, this is Lyria Black. She has come to stay with the Malfoy's for the beginning of summer." She said with fear dripping from her voice. Not a single thing made Bellatrix afraid, except for losing this girl. Voldemort stood up then and walked up to the girl. She didn't show fear. She stood straight and looked him right in his eyes, something very few had the bravery to do. After staring at her intently, he did something that absolutely nobody expected him to do. He reached for her arm gently and kissed the top of her hand.
"Pleasure is mine." He said, no malice in his tone. Lyria was stunned but hid it from her face. All Tom could think was, Who is this girl?
    Voldemort was secretly more and more impressed as he learned about her. It had taken himself a great deal of time to learn wandless magic yet this odd girl could do it with ease. She hardly needed her wand. Over the weekend he trained her ruthlessly. He saw the power and strength in her and refused to let it go to waist. Oddly enough, he didn't want to pressure her. He wanted her to be comfortable and taught her only what she wished to learn. He liked how much of a passionate student she was. The more she was taught, the more she wanted to learn. He only danced on the edges of dark magic, not wanting to fully corrupt her soul the way his was. After just those few days, he felt something very strange. He felt that he cared. He wanted to protect her and make her as strong as possible. Not because he wanted a weapon but because he wished for her to always be safe. It was a fatherly sort of love that he had never expected to feel. He never felt those positive feelings that normal wizards did. He had a soft spot for her but would not allow the others to see it. He would lose this war as quickly as it started if he presented a weakness. Not only would it harm him but it would also put her in danger. Many would love to see anyone and anything that he cared for scream and burn.
    He was shocked when the girl told him that her father had refused to teach her how to become an animagus even though she so desperately wanted to. There was no harm in it and it only made his irritation for the Black traitor worse. Though, he never spoke ill of the man in front of Lyria. He was her father and not a bad one. Though Tom did wonder where Lyria had been while he was in Azkaban seeing as he had intel that Lupin stayed underground almost entirely before teaching at Hogwarts. He tried to ask once, but she instantly grew tense and changed the subject. This only made him more curious but he refused to upset the girl. Even though he was growing softer with each passing day when he spent time with Lyria, he was still just as ruthless with everyone else. The girl had tried to convince him to be nicer to the Malfoy's and Bella but it was a hard deal for him to make. He did concede in the end though. He would lay off them but he sure as fuck wasn't going to be nice.
    It was Lyria's last day at the Manor and she had asked Tom (who she was on a first name basis with now) if she could attend the meeting that was taking place that evening. He was shocked at her request. She had been clear that she didn't agree with how they treated muggles and mudbloods. She wasn't like the Weasley's about it though. She knew that she was superior to all those others with her blood. She knew that she was better. She just didn't agree to the torture, murder and isolation that came with Tom's views. He had yet to budge on these things but he grew worried that one day he simply wouldn't be able to say no to her. God, he was soft.
    While people were still getting settled in their seats, Dolohov made an extremely vulgar remark about her body and her obvious beauty under his breath that he must have thought was too quiet for anybody to hear but in reality, the whole table heard the words clearly. Bellatrix was shaking with anger and Lyria looked incredibly uncomfortable. Pulling her skirt down and her top higher up subconsciously. Before Bella or the Malfoy's could do a thing about the nasty remark, Tom had grown protective and crucio'd the man. The only reason he didn't kill him was because Lyria quietly pleaded for him to stop. She was all too familiar with the pain brought on by another and it pained her to see the sort of father figure she had gained to do this to another. He saw the fear in her eyes and entered her mind to see the flashback of memories from Jason and the foster families like him. He stopped at once, not wanting to scare the girl, though he knew she would never show that kind of weakness outwardly. She was the first person to ever pull a genuine laugh from him.
    When Lyria leaves to go back home, everyone is sad to see her go. She brought a kind of light to the cold dark manor that had never been there. Each person cherished her every laugh and smile. She had grown powerful over the short time she had spent there. Bellatrix had taught her how to hide her knives and to take down an opponent with muggle martial arts.