Riddle's little snake

The art of masks

After the incident in the Great Hall nobody talked about Curare's plan to leave anymore. At least not out of the Slytherin common room. Ginny had gone ballistic hen she found out her first real friend wanted to leave the school and tried everything to change the young girl's mind. Draco also seemed less than pleased, he would not be able to see her so much again as he would be in school for most of the year.

When the Christmas break came up almost the entire Slytherin house packed their bags to go home. Pureblood families almost always insisted that their children had to spend yule with their relatives and not to forget there would be a big ball again.

The Deatheaters had a tradition that every year a different family would host a grand ball in their homes. Usually it was a masquerade ball where everyone wore the finest robes and people dancing, drank expensive wine, and chatted.

For the public this ball was not accessible but every year a few people of not so high families were invited so they could see how it was on such a ball and also meet important politicians.

Curare had just finished packing all of her stuff, her trunk lying open on the bed as she was not planning on returning when Ginny walked in. The redhead looked defeated when she saw her roommate ready to leave the life at Hogwarts behind. Curare went into their bathroom when Ginny noticed something shiny in the corner of the trunk. She pulled in out and looked at the mask she saw in awe. There were often pictures of Deatheaters in the papers, but they never got a so clear picture of their masks.

It looked very scary, made completely of some sort of light metal and gave off a strong magical vibe which made it almost hum in her hands. Not to mention it reeked of Dark Magic and she could practically fell her magic trying to fight the Dark influence from sweeping over her body.

Growing up in a family that never even thought about using something else but light magic, the feeling was unfamiliar but not necessarily bad. Just odd. Like a blanket that was both warm but had a touch of cold to it. Hard to explain really.

The mask itself looked a bit like a skull and for some reason the mouth looked like it had been sewn closed, but still leaving gaps for breathing. Ginny looked around the room quickly before trying it on. Surprisingly she could see perfectly, and the sides of the mask didn't stop her vision. Plus, even though the room was quite dark, she could see everything extremely clearly, some things she couldn't see without it.

Ginny walked to the window and looked out into the dark night. Normally she could barely make out the trees at the side of the castle, the windows under the black lake in the room were charmed to like the person was in one of the towers for a better view, but this time, with the mask, she could see everything so much clearer.

The branches of the trees, some animals inside the forest, Hagrid in front of his hut, playing with fang, yes even the bird egg on the forest ground that must have fallen out of its nest. No wonder that even in the darkest nights the Deatheaters always seemed to know their way around.

Ginny tried to take the mask off again but it wouldn't move. She tried again, frantically, but nothing worked. Suddenly, after trying to get it off for too long her head started to hurt and it sounded like someone was screaming in it. Distant. Then her vision went black briefly. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a snake coming towards her, it's mouth wide open, looking like it was ready to kill. From pictures that Curare had shown her she assumed this must be Nagini. Ginny tried to scream but her throat felt like it was being squashed and the scream of terror in her head just got louder and louder,

Just then someone finally pulled the mask off, and Ginny fell on the floor with a gasp, breathing heavily for a few seconds before finally looking up. There stood Curare who was looking at her with a slightly concerned expression.

"You okay?" She asked, scanning the redhead with her eyes completely before returning her attention to the girl's face.

"Y-yes...I think so. What the hell was that?" Ginny asked slowly, not even trying to get up as she felt as if the mask had drained her of all her energy.

"This is my Deatheater mask, as I am sure you figured out. They are charmed in a certain way. Anyone can put them on but only specific people, loyal Deatheaters are able to remove it again. If you try and are unsuccessful the mask shows horrors, messing with you head and draining you off your magic. Don't worry, you should be back to normal in an hour or two, depending on how long you wore it.

"That was terrifying." The redhead rasped, trying to shake the memory out of her head.

"Yes...it attacks the same way as dementors do, if you had kept it on a little longer it would have felt like it was sucking your soul it. As only we can remove our masks, it helps when enemies try to and if they find one somewhere they will go mad eventually as only we can remove them again."

"Sorry for putting it on without asking. I've just never seen one up close. It's fascinating."

"It's okay...I shouldn't have left it out like that anyway. Just please refrain yourself from touching any more of my stuff. A lot of it is charmed in unfriendly ways to keep away prying eyes."

As Ginny still looked pretty shaken Curare pulled her up and helped her to her bed. "Hey do you wanna see something cool about my mark?" Curare asked, she could see Ginny would need a bit of distraction.

She nodded enthusiastically, always ready to learn something new about it. Curare pulled up her right sleeve, making the tattoo visible before hissing something. Then suddenly the snake began to move, making Ginny's eyes go wide. The snake curled around Curare's arm before slithering up and disappearing underneath her sleeves.

Curare grabbed Ginny's hands and hissed something again and then the snake came towards their conjoined hands, to Ginny's shock it suddenly was on her arm now, as if it had gone out of Curare's skin.

Carefully the redhead tried to touch the skin where the tattooed snake was moving about. When she touched it she could feel the same magic as the mask and she pulled away. "It's charmed as if it were a real snake so I can give it commandos, though it can't answer."

"That's incredible" Ginny almost felt disappointed when the snake left her arm and went back to its original place, freezing around the scull with it's mouth open just as if nothing had ever happened.