Spider's Blood

Chapter Eight

Zora sniffed each glass and quickly set the Slytherins' down with wide and disgusted eyes and a throaty cough. She glanced over to the Slytherins, all standing and waiting with devious eyes and evil grins.

She set the red drink down gently and raised the glass filled with green to her lips. She closed her eyes and let the green liquid enter her mouth. She slammed the glass down, nearly shattering it with the force, and stood. Her face was contorted in disgust as the potion entered her system.

All the Slytherins were inching closer, waiting for something to happen: for Zora to grow scales or an extra head, or for her to drop down to her knees and become ill, waiting for Zora to die if she must.

"Are you in pain?" Snape asked casually from her side, scratching his quill at a fresh sheet of parchment, not removing his eyes to even glance at her.

"No," she breathed as she padded her stomach. "Nauseated."

"What did you administer?" Snape asked the Slytherins, continuing to scratch lightly at the parchment.

"Ahh..." Draco began, thinking too hard for his brain, "it's a surprise...keep watching, you'll see."

Zora began to groan a little, clutching at her stomach. She began to rock a little from side to side as she nursed her afflicted stomach.

"One minute," Snape called loudly from her side, checking his glittering gold pocket watch.

Zora stopped. Her arms fell to her sides and she stood perfectly still, a statue in the middle of the dungeon, staring at the stone floor between the rows of workplaces. Her black hair moved over her shoulders without anyone pushing or pulling it; moving on its own. It separated into a dozen sections and began to curl and straighten...curl and straighten...curl and straighten.

The Slytherins withdrew their grins and watchful eyes and stared. Harry saw out of the corner of his eye Draco moving slowly to the back and simply watch. Harry inched a little closer and examined the moving sections of hair. Out of the very tip of one burst a brilliant blue creature, which opened wings and fluttered up above Zora's head. Out of another section came a pink, then a purple, then a green and so on until one dozen butterflies were circling themselves around Zora's head.

A gasp came from the Slytherin side of the dungeon. Snape scratched at his parchment and said, "Very clever. A glamour potion, summoning butterflies...how cute," he added with deep sarcasm. "Nonetheless, if these insects disappear, I will assign full marks. Brilliant idea, I must say, throwing in the other ingredients. I think you certainly gave everyone in this dungeon a scare with the smell and exaggerated snickering," Snape commented as he continued to scratch.

Each butterfly began to pop into a colored cloud of smoke. When the twelfth disappeared, Zora's eyes blinked frantically and darted around the dungeon. Harry believed she almost asked what had happened, but closed her mouth and proceeded to the glass of red elixir.

She peered into the red mixture and sniffed it again. She slowly rose the glass to her lips and began to drink. As she did so, she locked her eyes with Harry. She swallowed the mixture in one big gulp and set the glass on the Gryffindor table, still not taking her eyes from Harry.

"Any pain at all?" Snape inquired, scribbling on the parchment with his sharp quill.

"No," Zora replied, "just...a tingle."

Zora's hand covered her stomach as she spoke and a green color came to her face.

"Nausea?" Snape asked, not taking his eyes from his parchment.

"A little," Zora said, closing her eyes, eyebrows pressing together. She began to sway from side to side, keeping her eyes locked closed and holding her stomach.

"Ms. Birk?" Snape called, peering questionably at Zora.

"Hermione," Harry whispered, "are you sure it was a good idea to take out the aconite?"

"I...think so," she replied, looking very worriedly at Zora, "it should be working by now. Maybe it doesn't work the same on...things like her?"

Harry turned his head back to Zora. Her face was no longer green, but hideously pale and chalky. Her skin seemed to be changing yet remained the same. She began to crouch down, clawing at her stomach, her knuckles turning a painful white, and refusing to open her eyes.

"Are you in pain?" Snape asked calmly.

"No!" Zora yelled, although it was obvious she was in a great deal of pain. She was in a ball now, holding her knees tightly and gently rocking on the floor.

Her skin continued to change to a lighter and lighter shade of ghostly white and her hair grew longer and tangled itself. She kept in her ball, not letting anyone see anything more than her hair.

"One minute," Snape called, peering at his gold pocket watch. "Whatever you're going through, Ms. Birk, it is complete. Please stand."

"No!" she shouted from the floor.

"I cannot give a grade if you do not stand," Snape replied calmly, walking closer to the tangled black hairball.

"Hermione? I don't think this was such a great idea," Harry whispered frantically. His heart had begun to race, he was almost afraid of what was hiding under the tangled mess of hair.

"Zora, stand up," Snape said with finality.

Zora rose slowly from her position, although it made no difference as her hair was draped all around her and reached the floor even when she stood. Snape pulled her hair away from her face. A fearful gasp sounded from both sides of the dungeon. Her skin was a chalk white, her eyes were deep red, her lips were blue and frozen looking, and her cheekbones were high and defined on her face.

"What potion did you administer?" Snape asked as he peered at Zora's face.

"A revealing potion, professor," Hermione replied, not taking her frightened eyes from Zora.

"Cut down the aconite I see? It will shorten the vitality of the potion ...but obviously has an effect of the quality. I think we can all agree that Ms. Birk's personality is not exactly Haggish, I'm sure."

"She really is then," Harry thought to himself, "it must have eaten through the glamour...she's a vampire!"

"However, the attempt was genuine and unique I must admit. If she may painlessly return to her normal state, it will give full marks to the Gryffindors...consider it a very generous Christmas gift and do not become accustomed to my generosity."

"Thank you, professor," Hermione sounded at Harry's side, although her voice did not seem full of anything resembling thanks. She was shaking and staring at Zora's face.

Zora tried her best to hide her face, shielding it with her hands, waiting to turn back. Slowly, her hair crept back to its average length and her face shifted and returned to its natural state. She let out a deep sigh, and removed her hands. Her wet blue eyes stared back at her audience and she walked calmly to the back of the dungeon and out of the heavy wooden door. The clamor of her frantic steps slammed against the stairs and echoed in the completely silent dungeon.

"Right then," Snape broke in when her steps had faded, "full marks. Dismissed!"

"Did you find anything?" Harry asked nervously as he peered over Hermione's shoulder.

She did not reply immediately, as Harry had expected, and continued reading the potions book. When she was finally ready to reply, she closed the book and turned her face to Harry. The library was desolate and spookily quiet with everyone preparing to leave the grounds in an hour. The trio had rushed immediately to the library after the potions class for answers. Ron was just outside the row of books, leaning against the shelf, and being curiously quiet. Harry was standing at the edge of the table where Hermione was seated, all eyes on her.

"Aconite does lengthen a potion's effects and removing it allows it to last minutes or even seconds. However, with this potion, it was also an actual ingredient...removing it would have changed the outcome."

Harry let out a grunt and slammed his hand against the table, the slap echoing down the row.

"Let me finish before you get moody," Hermione said calmly, "removing it weakens the potion. Basically what we saw was a G-rated version of what it would have been."

"So...she's really worse than all that?" Ron asked from the end of the row.

"And now, she probably knows we're onto her," Hermione commented, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Well, she's not stupid enough to try anything during the holidays...less people to blame," Harry said, trying to settle the situation a little.

"Are you sure you won't have one of us stay with you?" Ron asked, peering thoughtfully at Harry.

"Of course...Hermione's been talking about her family for ages and you need to care for Ginny. I'll be fine," Harry replied.

"Promise you won't...do anything...stupid?" Hermione asked shortly.

"Do I ever?"

Hermione let out a scoff and stomped down the shelves of books and out of the library with a loud slam that echoed from the door through the entire desolate library.

"What was that for?" Harry asked, peering after her and changing his glance to Ron, who was smiling with amusement.

"Harry, with your past experiences...you might not want to pretend you never do anything stupid."

"I don't usually...or at least not by myself."

"I'll give you that. So, no chasing vampires until one of is with you, no use getting into trouble alone...not as much fun," Ron smiled.

"Still no proof she really is," Harry reminded Ron as he took the book Hermione had been reading and placed it neatly back in its slot.

"Honestly Harry what more do you need? A creature walking around...the blood missing...what she looked like today in class...what more can you need?"

"I need to see it with my own eyes," Harry replied quietly.

Ron was right and Harry nearly kicked himself for it. Bottom line was part of Harry refused to believe the young girl who had been so kind to him could possibly be as evil as she seemed. It was almost like saying Hermione was a dementor or Ron an untamable dragon. It was a notion Harry refused to take without seeing it with his own eyes.

Harry sat in the common room, studying the same page of the same book he had been for the past two hours. It probably would have been productive to actually be reading through the book, but Harry wasn't interested in any new spells he had to perform after the holidays were over. He simply sat and enjoyed the warmth from the fire, silently waiting for the stubborn first years to finally relocate to their dormitories.

It was now just after midnight, and the final pair of first years gave a yawn and stretch and wearily walked to their beds as they rubbed at their eyes. Harry sat very still in his chair, almost afraid to move. He listened to the thick silence of the room before he rose from his seat and draped the cloak he had been hiding behind his back around his body. He stood, watching the empty room. He wanted to be sure no one saw him leave and absolutely no one followed him.

When he was finally comfortable that no one was waking at that exact moment, Harry turned and rushed to the portrait hole, leaving all his holiday comforts behind. He didn't think of it as breaking his promise to Ron and Hermione to stay away, just getting a head start on their research.

He walked cautiously through the cold hallway, the sting of the cold stones piercing through the thin soles of his slippers. He looked all around him, waiting in secrecy and silence. He had mapped out the route the creature had to take if it frequented these halls. If it had been spotted in the same corridor multiple times, it simply meant it had a routine route in which it did not suspect being watched. Harry quietly thought to himself of Halloween night and the slash in his sleeve. He had reasoned the creature had somehow become invisible and (hopefully) accidentally slashed his arm as it passed by.

Suddenly, the torch just above Harry's head burst into flames, starling Harry for a moment before he tightened his grip on the cloak and ducked behind the same statue he and Ron had hidden themselves behind. A few seconds later, the ebony wrapped creature stalked by Harry and turned down the hall just to the right.

Harry cautiously crept from behind the statue and walked forward, following the creature.

"Too late to turn back now," he reasoned as he walked, careful to conceal each and every step.

The creature took Harry through many winding halls and corridors, which gave Harry an especially hard time as he tried his best to remember the route. Suddenly, the creature stopped. If Harry hadn't been paying attention so closely, he would have stumbled forward and created a noise indicating his presence. Thankfully he was being overly cautious and stopped his foot in mid air as the creature waited. It turned its covered head slightly to the side, and stepped gracefully to the left, the excess material of the cloak dragging a train behind it.

It stood before a painting of meadow with bright green and blue paint. The wind was blowing in the scene and the trees were wafting gently to the rhythm of the breeze. The creature raised its hand, still draped with the black cloth, to the frame of the portrait and pulled it from the wall as if it were a door. In a moment the creature had disappeared and the frame slammed shut, its noise echoing through the hallway.

Harry stood frozen for a moment and listened to the steady beat of his heart. He collected his courage and continued to walk to the frame. He reached out his hand, the same way the creature had, and smoothly pulled from the wall. He stepped into the darkened room within the wall and quietly closed the painting behind him.

Harry could immediately hear voices and shouts from the room around him, but did not dare to take a step forward. He surveyed his surroundings as best he could. It was a small room from what he could see through the poor lighting around him. He noticed opposite him was what looked like the top of a set of stairs. He cautiously moved over to the staircase, walking as soundlessly as physically possible. As Harry walked, he could easily see that the room in which he stood was simply an entrance to a much larger and grander room below. Harry peered around the top of the larger room and saw that the stone railing the accompanied the staircase leading down also wrapped around the top of the room, making a continuous balcony near the ceiling. Many windows reaching from the ceiling to the floor, the height of at least three stories, surrounded the room before Harry's eyes. The black sky outside with scattered balls of light could easily be seen from the windows and a full moon shot a stream of light through the room.

Harry placed a hand on the railing to steady himself so that he might peer further into the room below. Through his cloak, Harry's hand felt a smooth and cool material very different from the stone the banister from which the banister was made. Harry cautiously peered down and noted the black cloak the creature had been wearing only moments before. His heart began to race as he realized that the creature was unmasked and walking somewhere within the confines of this room.

Harry continued to walk around the upper section of the room, walking away from the stairs and the black cloak draped over the railing. The shouts Harry heard when he entered from the painting were growing louder and louder as he moved around the balcony and a sound similar to slicing metal grew more distinct. When Harry had reached the other side of the large room, he felt it was finally safe to peer down into the lower half and examine it more closely.

"Just try to get past me!" a man clad in black robes was shouting with a mocking tone at his opponent. His hair gleamed in the moonlight from the large windows just behind Harry's hidden body. The man was swiping a shiny metal sword in the air until it clashed with another with a loud twang.

"Snape?" Harry thought to himself as he peered closer at the man's face. From the height it was difficult to be sure, but the thick grease of his hair could not lie.

Harry looked to his opponent, a girl...with long black hair and a small frame.

"Zora?" his thoughts pestered. "Why are Snape and Zora fighting?"

The two were holding swords shinning in the moonlight and moving so fast that Harry could barely see the blurs of silver and occasional shinning light when the swords ceased periodically as they clashed together. Around the two were numerous tables, all covered with bottles or with different objects Harry did not immediately recognize, most appeared to belong in Dunbledore's office.

"You can't get passed me!" Snape taunted, his voice booming in echo as it rose from the ground.

"Watch me!" Zora retorted and jabbed her sword at Shape's side, which he quickly dodged and blocked with his own sword, locking hers in place for a long while. Finally he threw the sword further against her sword, the force knocking her back a few steps. Frustrated, she again slashed at Snape, this time piercing his robes and sweeping a tear in them, the sound of which soared up to Harry's ears.

Snape fell to his knees, his sword clamoring to the ground at his side as he nursed his wound with his hand. A look of shock spread on his face as he kneeled there, holding his side with both hands.

Harry watched curiously as his opponent, the one he was fighting only moments before and who now had the chance to get passed his presence and onto whatever it was he was protecting, threw her own sword down and rushed to Snape's side, covering his hands with her own.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed with an honest sorrow as she applied pressure to the wound.

"It's fine, bloody blunting charms wearing off. It's not your fault. Can you heal it?" he asked, his words sounding as though they were painful and took a great effort to let them out.

"No, I fell behind in that chapter," Zora replied and shook her head as she withdrew her hands. Harry watched as she peered at those hands, each coated with red blood, and he continued his watch as she frantically scrubbed them with her black robes.

"I can only do little cuts," she finally replied when all the red had disappeared from her pale hands.

"Fine then, get the potion," he said with a painful sigh.

Harry watched as Zora rose from Snape's side and went to a small table at the edge of the room. She rustled through a few small bottles; the sound of glass knocking against glass filled the room as she nervously searched. She retrieved a green bottle and brought it to Snape. He bit the cork and spit it to the side. Harry noted the distinct smell of sausages wafting from the floor to his nose; it was the healing potion he had made in class on Halloween.

"This one's from Draco," Zora commented as she took back the empty bottle.

"Well, I'll probably be too weak to continue our practice...knowing his style. Perhaps we should stray from dueling tonight. Go to your vases...and don't break any tonight!" he added with a dangerous tone.

"Snape...and Zora..." Harry thought as he watched. "Is this what she meant by tutoring? It looks like he's...training her, but what for?"

A million scenarios filled with hate and violence rushed through Harry's head as he watched Zora move to a table and raise three glass vases...without the use of wand or hand. Harry felt his jaw drop as those three vases began to dance in the air, high above Zora's head and gracefully float and fall back to their place on the table.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Harry muttered to himself.