Little Snake - A Black Legacy

Chapter Nine - First Traces

She woke up in a cold sweat, sitting up straight in bed, breathing heavily. She looked around her room, tugging at her knees, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that no one was in her room. Ever since the Malfoy incident, she had been afraid in that room. She only had a key to the small bathroom, but not to the door of the room. But that wasn't what had woken her up. It had been the nightmare. A dream of faceless figures pointing their wands at her. Of a boy who had suddenly disappeared. And of unspeakable pain, followed by a nightmare about Malfoy. Shivering, she brushed back her wet hair and ran a hand through her sweaty face. what time was it? She asked herself. Searchingly, she looked around the room to find the small clock on the nightstand. Half past three in the morning. Sighing, Hazel decided to take a shower. She carefully prepared her uniform, brush and towels before locking the bathroom and stepping into the warm shower.

As the warmth reached her bones, the tears that had been waiting since the dream came to her. For a few minutes she huddled on the floor of the shower sobbing before she pulled herself together and finished showering.

Instead of her uniform, she now wore loose cloth pants and a comfortable sweater and sat down with a schoolbook by the fireplace in the common room, her legs drawn up to her body. She hadn't even combed her hair properly, so her curls fell wildly around her face. As time passed, she changed her seat. She didn't feel like being noticed quickly by other early-rising classmates, so she sat down by the window that faced the Black Lake.

The book was long uninteresting, instead she had begun to stare out into the water, until she was finally noticed. With a short glance at one of the clocks in the common room, she sighed. Half past four. "Well Black, are you looking for mermaids?" she heard the unmistakable voice of Samael Malfoy, but instead of showing fear, she continued to stare unaffected into the depths of the lake. "What do you want Malfoy?" she said uncaringly. "Can't sleep, sweetie?" he asked instead, coming closer. In the sleeve of her sweater she had hidden her wand, which she now clutched unnoticeably. "Obviously," was all she replied. She noticed that he didn't like her behavior. He probably wanted her to pee her pants in fear, but she didn't have the strength for that. "Do you remember our... conversation?" he asked. His voice took on that sickening undertone that made her feel dirty again. She refused to let that be noticed. "I'm going to have to disappoint you. I don't care enough about your talk to give it any meaning, Malfoy," she said. In the corner of her eye she could see that he was getting angry. He wasn't used to being treated like this, let alone that anyone had ever rejected him.

When he went to draw his wand, she already had hers in hand and pointed at him, her eyes still turned toward the lake. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned carelessly. "Or what?" he asked threateningly, his wand now pointed at her. "Don't act dumber than you are. Whatever you plan to do, it would awaken our classmates and portraits." "There are also spells whose effects are not so loud" he said and with a muttered word and a wave of his wand Hazel's voice failed her. Inwardly, she wanted to panic. She throbbed against the emptiness inside her, but Hazel fought it back, not letting on and keeping her wand pointed at him. She concentrated on the spells she wanted to cast: Levioso and Finite. All her thinking focused on it and finally Malfoy cried out in surprise. Levioso had caught Malfoy, while she was now pointing her wand at herself to cancel his spell. "I am an heiress of the main Black family tree. Did you really think I could only do low-grade spells?" she said uncaringly. She waved her wand barely visible. "Depulso," she muttered boredly, and in the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy spinning in the air. She then swung her wand a little more energetically and threw him out of that part of the common room towards the fireplace. Satisfied, she realized that he had left her alone...