The Eye of the Snake [Draco Malfoy]

o23: The Rafters of St. Peter's School

As the bright sunlight streaked through the blue curtains Melissa’s eyes blinked open, a small smile growing on her face and her arms stretched out. She looked round her room to see her brother’s new dog sitting at the end of her bed. He lied down slowly, watching Melissa, and rested his head on her shin. She sneered at the giant mutt and he growled back, and jumped off the bed before running out of the room, his nails sliding on the ground. The purple alarm clock next to her bed went off as she got to her feet and she immediately hit the top of it. Her feet slipped into the white fuzzy slippers at the side of her bed and she put her striped robe on before heading down the stairs. Brayden had a couple more days of school left; Kalvin was on some ice fishing trip with his brother; and Andrea was on a business trip til the end of the week, so the house was completely empty, save for the large-sized mongrel running about the house.

Melissa put on a pot of coffee and jumped up onto the counter, sitting next to a bowl of grapes and tossing them into the air to try and catch them in her mouth. The phone rang and one of the grapes hit her in the eye.

“Ouch,” she said rubbing her eye and grabbed the phone.

“Penbrooke residence,” she said pleasantly.

“Yes, hello, this is Nina Grenwin, Brayden’s teacher,” the voice on the other side said.

“Oh, hi Ms. Grenwin, it’s Melissa.” She said cheerfully.

“Oh hello sweetheart, are your parents there?”

“No, they won’t be back for a couple days,” she said aimlessly and then a sudden unpleasant thought popped into her head. “Is Brayden alright?!”

“Yes, he’s, uhm, fine. There was an incident at school. Could you come down to the,”

“I’m leaving now.” Melissa said and hung up the phone running out of the house. She turned back around sharply. “I need to change,” she said to herself and ran back up the stairs. She quickly dressed herself and put on a pair of boots, grabbing the keys with her teeth and ran out of the house again. She got into the car, not worrying about the issue of not legally being able to drive, and took off towards the school. Within fifteen minutes Melissa ran through the door of the teacher’s office, her heart pounding and lungs not seeming to be functioning properly. Brayden was sitting timidly in the chair in front of the teacher’s desk, looking down at the ground as her twiddled his thumbs.

“Bray, are you alright?” Melissa asked dropping down to his side. He shook his head lightly, refusing to look at her.

“What happened?” Melissa asked and looked up at the teacher. She was a young woman of her mid-twenties. Her short blonde hair was always a little frazzled and her nail polish never seemed to completely cover her nails.

“Well, he was in his gym class and well, he somehow got into the rafters.” Ms. Grenwin said slowly, not fully believing it herself. Melissa opened her mouth and then closed it again looking down at Brayden. The wheels in her head began turning and quickly sped up.

“Can I take him home?” she asked.

“Yes, of course, he’s a little shaken up. Have your parents call me when they get home, please,” said Ms. Grenwin as Melissa took Brayden’s small hand, giving it a light squeeze.

“I will,” said Melissa and left the school with Brayden. On the way home, through a freak blizzard, neither Melissa nor Brayden said a word. He continued to look at the ground, upset more than she’d ever seen him.She parked the car in the drive way and put her hat over Brayden’s head and the two ran inside quickly.

“So what happen?” Melissa asked as the two took their boots off.

“Daniel Flemming was being mean to me.” He said bitterly as Melissa helped him take his coat off.

“And mum always said if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say ‘nythin’ at all. So I closed my eyes and pretended to be somewhere else, and when I opened my eyes I was in the rafters.” He said, looking at the floors. “I know you won’t believe me.” He said and looked up at Melissa, sadly. A wide smiled slowly started to grow across Melissa’s face as her whole body started to shake.

“What’s with your face, Missy?” he asked in a tone of concern.

“Brayden,” she said excitedly, picking him up and spinning around happily.

“What?” he yelled, a little nervous.

“You’re a wizard.”