Nicole Stevens: Blood and Daggers

Chapter Thirteen: Pensive

"Sal, you know she is not a normal witch! You cannot marry her, you cannot bed her, and you most certainly cannot love her!" I heard Godric Gryffindor's exasperated ranting through the bedroom door. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes.

Salazar's pillow had a depression in it from where his head had lain. I threw back the silken bedspread soundlessly and tiptoed over to the door, which was only barely open. There was candlelight flooding in through the door crack. I peered cautiously through the crack between the doorjamb and the wall. Sal was standing in a defending stance, as was Godric. They were both looking extremely frustrated.

"You have no choice as to who I choose to marry! In fact, I shall choose everything on my own now, and whoever decides to contest that shall face the consequences. Now, away Godric, before I lose my temper!" Salazar gave his rival a glare, his stony-grey eyes alight with fury.

"I refuse to allow you to rule this school! Ro and Helga will not tolerate this!"

"Do not bring any more women into this! The bare fact is that Nicole never should have been included in this discussion anyway! You are a fool if you believe that Helga and Ro are both madly in love with you. I know the truth! I know more about Helga than you ever will! I know how her kiss is, how her skin feels under mine, and how she pleads! Every niche in her body, I know! And you tell me I am naïve? I am not. Yes, it is true that we have bed together, and I feel no regret for those nights I spent with her. You cannot tell me I know nothing of women! Nicole is young, naïve, and unknowing of the pain she will feel because of love. It is one of the reasons I love her. Helga is a very different matter! She has bed with many others! And you say Ro and she are your toys alone? No! Indeed it is not so! How you manage thinking that, I have no idea, but I do know this; she will damage your pride, your ego, with her poisonous love. It is tainted. Helga's lovers never come out on top! They are disenchanted once they have bed with that woman! Nicole is still true. She is still chaste, if you wish to call it that. Nicole is uncorrupted! Do you not see that?"

"Salazar, the serpent lies within them! They are women! Women are surreptitious! They are consorts with the dark powers! How can you be so foolish as to think that this Nicole is the one you love? It is untrue, and well you know it! If she told you once that she is chaste, then dismiss it as a lie! I know fair well that Helga is deflowered! How could I not? It is known throughout the land. Now, Ro is, in every respect, completely pure. Innocent, though, she is not. I know these facts well."

"I have no more convictions to share, Godric, and I do not wish to speak any longer. Get out of my quarters."

"I will not," refused Gryffindor.

"Do not force me to throw you out, for you will regret it."

"All right," Godric conceded at last. He turned on his heel and strode boldly out of the room. I watched as Sal took a wineglass from a tray on the table. He held it in his hand for a moment before spinning around and throwing it at the door I was crouching behind. It shattered upon impact, and I shrieked loudly as the glass fell into a pile on the wooden floor. Salazar heard my cry and burst into the bedroom. The door's force was enough to cause me to fall down onto the floor, which became covered with glass from the pile in the next room. I cut my palm on a shard of fine glass, as Salazar inspected me on the floor. His look was one of cold fury.

"How much did you hear?" he exclaimed.

"N-Nothing," I stammered, cowering at his feet.

"Liar! You heard it all, did you not?" His voice became quieter.

"N-no," I whispered.

"No?" he knelt on the ground next to me. His voice became a whisper, deadly and venomous.

I shook my head. Sal grabbed my wrist, yanking me onto my knees. I yelped as the slices of glass cut my knees.

"You should not have lied to me," Sal whispered. I whimpered.

Salazar pulled me to my feet. I backed away from him in fear. Salazar wrenched me back.

"Possibly Godric was correct," he hissed, throwing me backwards. His shove was enough to send me reeling. I fell onto my back, being cut by the glass. Sal towered over me, scowling down into my face. I stared at the floor.

"What do you have to say girl? Are you afraid?"

"I hate it here," I muttered quietly.

"Do you, now?" he asked with deadly wickedness.

I nodded minutely.

"Pity," his voice was cold. Salazar's hand shot forward, grabbing my hair, which was loose, flowing over my shoulders. He jerked on my hair, yanking me upward. I stood up painfully.

"You love me."

I nodded, though it was a lie.

"You will wed me."

I nodded again.

"And you will bed me."

Another nod.

"Good. Now go to sleep. We will speak in the morning."

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

"Morning. Time to go to class...Ugh, I don't want to go," I complained. Draco looked up at me from the bed. He lay with his feet on the pillow, lying on his stomach to look at me.

"I empathise."

"Where is my skirt?" I asked him.

"Over there. You tossed it over there, at least." He indicated the chair. I looked, and, sure enough, there lay my uniform: skirt, blouse, socks, everything.

"Oh, yeah." I grabbed them and began to take off Draco's black shirt that I had borrowed. Then I remembered he was in the room, and stopped.

"Cover your eyes," I ordered.

"You haven't got anything I haven't seen before," Draco pointed out.

"No, but..."

"C'mon, lighten up. You probably changed in front of Potter loads of times. It's not a huge secret or anything. You have a chest, big deal."

"Fine." I took off his shirt and tossed it at him. I slipped on my uniform shirt and skirt, finally adding the black robe over it all. Last, I put my hair up with a pencil and picked up my schoolbag. Draco surveyed me from the bed.

"You're eating lunch with me, right?" he asked.

"Duh," I replied.

"Good. See you later," he waved goodbye to me as I strode out of his bedroom. Life was good. That had been the second night in Draco's room, and everything had worked out fine. No one had bothered us at all. Of course, last night had been considerably more enjoyable than the previous night; the night I had cried myself to sleep in Draco's arms. (Get your mind out of the gutter, people! They did NOT sleep together! Yet...No, seriously. They won't.)

I walked through the Slytherin common room. No one even bother to raise their head. I hurried out of the room, jogging down the potions corridor and into the entrance hall, where students were scurrying into classrooms.

I headed up the stairs into the charms classroom. Flitwick was hustling around the room, handing out sheets of paper. I looked at mine at he thrust it at me. A pop quiz on the stuff we had studied the previous week. I frowned at the solitary piece of parchment, thinking of the difficult questions I would surely have to answer.

"All right, class," Flitwick began, "there is--" but a knock on the door silenced the dwarf. The door opened and Severus Snape stepped in, frowning at the students.

"Miss Stevens is supposed to come with me," he said to Flitwick. The class all stared blankly at me. Harry looked back at me from the front row. I ignored him and kept my gaze on the Potion Master.

"Why, yes...of course. You may take her," Flitwick said in his high-pitched voice. He did not look extremely pleased that I would have to miss his oh-so-lovely pop quiz.

Snape nodded and gestured lazily for me to follow him. I picked up my bag, shoving my parchment inside it. Snape tapped his foot impatiently on the floor as I did. I gave him a glare, before he turned and strode out the door, with me following. Snape led me up to the fourth floor, where the headmaster's office was. He stopped before the stone gargoyle and said, "Bubblegum-Lollipop." I sniggered as Snape said this and received a sharp look from him. The wall behind the gargoyle slid past, and Snape walked into the room behind it. I followed him in and looked at the slowly spiralling staircase that disappeared into darkness above. The wall slid shut with a snap, as Snape stepped onto the first stair. He indicated for me to do the same, so I obeyed, merely because if I was heading up to the headmaster's office anyway, I might not want to do more damage than I had surely done already.

The stairs stopped at a landing, where Snape and I both disembarked. He knocked once on the door, which opened immediately. I walked in, and Snape said, "Dumbledore will be back momentarily. You are to sit and wait here until he comes."

I nodded, ignoring his words. I sat in one of the chairs that were situated in front of Dumbledore's desk. During the waiting, I tapped my foot, hummed a tune, and even mentally studied for the test in Flitwick's class.

As I sat, a beautiful music reached my ears. It was faint, but coming steadily closer. It sounded amazingly calm, and yet fiery at the same time. Just as the music reached such a loud intensity that I could hardly bear it, it stopped, and a huge fire-coloured bird flew in through the open window. I watched as it soared inside, landing on a golden perch behind the desk. I watched it cautiously, but it looked friendly enough. I stood from the chair and made my way over to the bird; a phoenix. It sung one note of its song, before flying from its perch over to my shoulder. I stood still, amazed at the peculiar behaviour of the phoenix. It squeezed my shoulder with its talons, before taking off again and soaring over to one of the large cabinets that surrounded the huge room. A funny noise was coming from inside. It was a whirring sound, and I stared curiously at the bird, which was sitting atop the cabinet and looking pointedly at me. I took the hint and pulled open the cabinet door, which had not been closed properly.

Inside was an aqua crystal ball. I looked through it, but, unlike a normal crystal ball, it was completely clear. I stared into it, trying to conjure the mental state that I used whenever I was looking into the crystal ball in Divination. I saw nothing except the glass. I stared into it again and saw something behind the orb. It was a wooden bowl, nothing more that I could tell. I gently moved the turquoise orb out of the way, and dragged the weightless wooden bowl forward. I stared into the bowl, seeing a substance that could have been liquid air, or possibly fluid light. There was nothing in the substance, whatever it was, but the fluid was constantly moving. It swirled around the basin, never splashing above a certain point. I reached down my finger warily, but soon found that I wanted to touch it more that I had known. I dipped my finger in, and immediately wished I had not. There was a loud whoosh, and I was sucked into the bowl.

I was in the middle of a clearing. It was, without a doubt, the grove of trees outside of my home. I was sitting on a bench, next to one of the handsomest men I had ever seen. He had short, black hair, and amber eyes. The bench we were sitting on was in the front, and I saw an altar where the trees began growing. Underneath the altar, a couple was standing with an older man. It was Dumbledore.

He looked no younger, but...Who was that man? And that woman? The man, why, he looked exactly like Harry! But, no. When he looked out into the crowd (there was a crowd, I noticed; three rows of benches, each filled with people), I saw that the man's eyes were blue. He was wearing dress-robes, and was looking extremely delighted at something. Beside him stood a woman; she had long, flowing red hair that tumbled in waves down her back. Her eyes...Harry's eyes! Somehow I knew instantly that these people were Harry's parents. Where was I? Dumbledore spoke. I jumped as his voice rang through the clearing.

"Hello everyone! I am pleased to see all of you have made it. We are here, in Godric's Hollow, to celebrate and unite this couple. Whoever has an objection to this union should speak up now, though I doubt that any complaint will be heeded by our couple." No one spoke, and Dumbledore continued, "Then, James, do you take Lily to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and health till death do you part?"

"Of course I do," answered the man, James. He sounded sooo like Harry.

"And do you, Lily, take James to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and health till death do you part?"

"I do," Lily answered. James smiled down at her.

"Then, I now present Mr. and Mrs. James Potter!" Dumbledore called. "You may now kiss the bride."

James folded Lily's veil back, and they kissed, with much hindrance from the veil. Lily finally just tossed the veil into the crowd. The man beside me caught it, and put it on his head. I laughed, along with the rest of the crowd. Everyone became noisy, and a small man came up to the bride and groom, just as the man beside me stood and made his way to the front. He and the man reached the couple at the same time.

"Peter!" the amber-eyed man called jovially as he saw the man.

"Sirius," replied Peter.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were off on Ministry business," Sirius said. That was Sirius Black?!?!

God, Harry's godfather is--was--sexy! Ook, I did not just think that.

"Hey, I want to take a picture of you," Peter said to the Potters.

"Sure!" both Lily and James replied.

They dragged Sirius into the picture, smiling. Peter said, "Say amnigibigie!"

"Amnigibie," the three friends tried to say it, but ended up just laughing. Peter took the picture and thanked them.

"I really must be going now. I will come back whenever I get the time," Peter told them.

They waved him away. I sat on the bench and watched the Potters' murderer walk away from the altar.

"Miss Stevens, I think it is time for you to go back to school," I heard Dumbledore's voice. I looked beside me and saw him sitting there.

"But--how did you? Oh, I'm sorry, I just...the bird," I stuttered excuses.

"It's not a problem," the headmaster replied, "I know Fawkes led you here. Follow me back to Hogwarts. Just close your eyes." I did so, and heard a whistling. I landed with a thump on the floor of the headmaster's office. I stood and went to sit in the chair by Dumbledore's desk.

"I called you here for many reasons, but the first reason is because of your dispute with Mister Potter. I would not pry into your private affairs if I did not think that it contained some piece of vital information. Could you inform me of what happened? I have spoken with Harry, though he would say nothing," Dumbledore said.

"He screwed Ginny Weasley," I muttered angrily.

"Excuse me?"

"He had sex with Ginny Weasley," I clarified.

"Oh. Yes, I had heard about that. Now if you would please inform me of the whole story?"

"Well, when I got out of the hospital wing..." I told him the story, except I left out the visit to the Feoxi. "So, that's about it. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, in fact. You have, undoubtedly, been told by Professor Lupin that Sirius Black is--" I sighed thinking of the handsome man I had seen, "--being held captive by Voldemort. I am uncertain as of how to go about getting him out," Dumbledore admitted sadly, "but I know there is a way. Mister Black cannot live for much longer, I have been told. If you know anything, anything at all, I would very much enjoy to hear it."

"He's in Malfoy Manor," I answered, "I know that much. I was told by...a friend. He's okay, I think. But, I don't know for sure how to get him out. I think--a trade. Oh my god," I had just realised something, "he doesn't want Black. He's a game piece. It's like chess! Sirius is the pawn! He can only move one place, but he can still take pieces. I'm the queen. That's it! I'm the queen! I can take anyone and force them to move, but...I'm also the piece the other colour wants to take out. So, if...is there a way to make a bargain with them? The Death Eaters, I mean. Like, could I...pretend to be a spy for them, or something? It would work; I have the Mark. No one would refuse me entrance to their hideouts. I could slip into Malfoy Manor, and get Sirius out and...but how would I get there?"

"Nicole, that is preposterous. I cannot allow you to put yourself in danger; not without the proper protection. There would have to be certain...No. It is too dangerous," he shook his head sadly, removing his glasses and rubbing them with a handkerchief.

"It isn't," I argued, "I don't care if I do have a grudge against Harry, if I could get Black out, I'd do it. I wouldn't be doing it for Harry, I'd be...ha! Harry and I! We could work together! What if--what if we both joined the Order? We would be protected, and we could have an escort of a few witches and wizards. Then, I would pretend like Harry was my prisoner, and I had been spying for the Death Eaters the whole time. It'd be risky but..." my mind was whirring as I thought of all the possibilities.

"Harry cannot be put into that sort of danger. Neither of you can. His parents entrusted me with his safekeeping, as you might have seen in the Pensive. Go to class now, and I shall call for you when it is time."

"Wait, Professor. I have two questions. First, what is the Sword of Light?"

"It is a sword that gives the wielder extraordinary powers. And?"

"How does this all tie together?"

"We will all know when it happens," he answered. Our session was over. I stood and walked out the door, my mind buzzing over our conversation. I needed to speak with Harry. And quickly too, before someone else got to him first. There was a traitor underfoot, and I could not find him. But I would. I must.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

"Asriel!" I called. When had the night ever been so cold?

"Yes, child," the dragon's low voice came from inside the forest.

"I need to know...how this all fits together. This is one great puzzle, and I understand none of it. How does this all work out? I see it, and yet I don't see it. It's here, but it's not."

"Even I do not know the answer to that question. I have a feeling that this shall end, for better or worst. I do not know who shall come out on top, but I feel it too. I see it, and I do not. It is a burden, often. The gift of second sight is not always a gift, but I do not give up faith in it. So, child, all I may tell you is that you have a part to play yet, though I do not know if you will do it for good or evil. I know not how this shall end, but I do know how this began. It is too long a story for you to hear now, for it would take many days and nights to explain to you every aspect of the tale. I will however, inform you of this; the traitor you sense, I sense it too. It will be someone you do not expect. No one will think to question him. It is so blatantly clear, but I shall not reveal. I cannot show all ends. I know not if he knows what he is doing. It may be that it is unintentional, but he is setting himself up. In his doings there are secrets, and in his life, there are twists. He is unsure of where to go, who to turn to. He has lost something dear to him, and longs for it back. Until he fulfils his desire, nothing will quench his thirst for vengeance. He will hurt the one who took it, and in turn, injure himself. I cannot say more, for I know not who it is, only what is felt inside. Go now, and ask me nothing more. I am being affected by The Coming, as well. My voice cannot be wasted on speaking a riddle. I cannot explain this person's mask of lies, for that in itself is impossible. Even he does not know the truth of it all. Go now."

"May I ask you one more question?" I asked tentatively.

"One, yes." Asriel seemed weary. Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes glittered no longer.

"Does Draco love me?"

"Ah, that. I wish I could say for certain. He is confused, but I believe he does, yes. After all, he transferred some of his own power into you to keep you alive during this time. The Coming. It affects him too, but he does not show it. The boy took your pain, at least part of it, onto himself. He is weak now too. Do not pressure him."

"He gave me some of his power?" I asked amazedly.

"Yes," the Feoxi answered, "when you were out here the other night, and staring at the moon as I had instructed, he realised you were being drained, so he gave you some of his strength. He hardly even had to think about it. He just acted."

I nodded, waving thanks and goodbye to the dragon as I walked back up to the castle.

What was going on here?